[Red State] It’s been almost a week since since Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Dr. Robert Redfield spoke in front of the House COVID-19 hearing on July 31. His words were widely quoted and reported on, especially that answer he gave when asked "if he thinks there are hospitals inflating COVID-19 deaths counts due to financial incentives," as Just the News reported.Readers may have caught some of the hubbub about the CDC director’s comments, and RedState made sure to cover it.
Now, Just the News has very quietly made a scoop on something else the director said, during a press conference call Tuesday, in a piece by reporter Nicholas Ballasy:
Just the News asked Redfield on Tuesday whether he was aware of some hospitals incorrectly reporting COVID-19 deaths and to describe the consequences a hospital or a physician would face for doing it.
"The way death certificates are completed, they’re completed by the physician of record," he said on a conference call. "And as a physician we make our best assessment as to what we believe the primary cause of death was. And then frequently we’ll note if there were some contributory factors, and then those death certificates become part of the public health record, and eventually they make their way to our national health statistics center in Hyattsville."
I encourage you to visit Just the News and read the whole thing.
If what the director said is the case when it comes to this troublesome virus, it seems to be a matter of a huge bureaucracy losing track of its many, moving parts. How anyone could manage such a behemoth, even without a pandemic ravaging America’s health care system, is a serious question that deserves better answers from our congressional and Senate representatives — sooner rather than later.