{"id":44234,"date":"2020-09-02T16:19:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44234"},"modified":"2020-09-02T16:19:23","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T16:19:23","slug":"covid-deaths-overcounted-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44234","title":{"rendered":"COVID deaths overcounted? Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=JoniErnst%20%23pandemic%20%23CDC&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ernstjoni_012417vsj_lead.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-22655\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ernstjoni_012417vsj_lead-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ernstjoni_012417vsj_lead-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ernstjoni_012417vsj_lead.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Can it be that Joni Ernst is really and truly that much of a nitwit?<\/p>\n<p>The Iowa Republican U.S. senator has said that the nation&#8217;s death count from the coronavirus pandemic might be <em>exaggerated<\/em> because doctors and other medical workers get greater reimbursements related to COVID deaths.<\/p>\n<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the death count at 184,000 &#8230; and rising.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/514746-ernst-says-shes-skeptical-about-coronavirus-death-count\">Sen. Ernst<\/a> is offering yet another GOP-hatched conspiracy theory that flies in the face in the counter evidence that suggests that the death count might be even greater than what the CDC is reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Why is that? Because there might be a hidden number of deaths that weren&#8217;t diagnosed as being related to the virus. That number could be thousands more than what CDC is telling us.<\/p>\n<p>Is this a function of a lack of tests to determine infection rates? Might it be that poor Americans who don&#8217;t have access to proper medical treatment are succumbing to the disease without ever knowing they were infected in the first place?<\/p>\n<p>I happen to one American who is more inclined to believe in the <em>undercounted<\/em> notion than the one that Ernst is pushing.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=JoniErnst%20%23pandemic%20%23CDC&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can it be that Joni Ernst is really and truly that much of a nitwit? The Iowa Republican U.S. senator has said that the nation&#8217;s death count from the coronavirus pandemic might be exaggerated because doctors and other medical workers get greater reimbursements related to COVID deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44234\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">COVID deaths overcounted? Really?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[891,9261],"class_list":["post-44234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","tag-cdc","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44235,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234\/revisions\/44235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}