Ten days ago we learned that Virginia, along with Texas and Vermont, were claiming more testing was being done because they were combining the number of tests for Coronavirus with the number of antibody tests. That left us with inaccurate numbers for active coronavirus cases.
Earlier this week there was cause for concern when the number of statewide deaths from coronavirus began to increase. Deaths in the state jumped 187 from Sunday to Thursday. But it seems there is no cause for concern. Once again, Virginia changed its way of counting COVID-19 deaths. The health department began to include deaths that may have been caused by the virus but no test had been done to confirm the presence of the virus. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
But what looked like a 74% increase in the number of deaths instead reflects the addition of fatalities that the Virginia Department of Health deemed to be probably caused by COVID-19 after an ongoing review of death certificates.
“The death numbers jumped around the state because VDH started adding ‘probable’ deaths to the counts,” said Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Henrico and Richmond health districts. “These are the deaths where COVID-19 is referenced on the death certificate, but there wasn’t an identified confirmatory test.”
My question is, why is Virginia’s department of health so interested in boosting the number of coronavirus cases and deaths? Are they hoping more federal dollars will come our way? Or because larger numbers will give King Ralph more justification for any continued, or new, control over our lives?
For instance, why are we being required to wear facemasks now? Isn’t it a bit late for that? That horse left the barn months ago. But, if our health department can convince us that COVID-19 is worse in Virginia than it actually is, it makes it easier for the citizens to accept more dictates from the King, and the lengthening of the phases of our release and returning to our normal lives.
