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Are deaths within 20 days of testing positive for COVID-19 automatically added to the pandemic's death toll?

By Dean Miller
NO

A claim on social media was made with no offer of proof and in apparent ignorance of the systems by which cause of death is determined and documented.

Lead Stories found no publicly available evidence of a 20-day rule or guideline. The president of the national organization for medical examiners said it would be extremely unlikely that local coroners and medical examiners would submit to federal pressure to act against their training. 

"Death investigation and certification is a local process ... Given that there are over 2,000 different death investigation jurisdictions and thousands and thousands of individual death certifiers, the idea that there is some massive conspiracy is inconceivable to me," said Dr. James Gill, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners.

The CDC's April 2020 guidance emphasizes the medical professional's judgement in death determinations.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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