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FACT BRIEF

Is every death of a person with COVID-19 counted as a COVID death?

By Ed Payne
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NO

The CDC says COVID-19 should not be reported on a death certificate if it did not cause or contribute to the death -- in other words, if a person with COVID died in an accident, that would not be counted as a COVID death.

The implication in a post on social media is that any time someone infected with COVID-19 dies, their death is counted as a coronavirus death. That's not true -- the CDC has specific guidelines for filling out death certificates.

Among the guidelines:

"COVID-19 should not be reported on the death certificate if it did not cause or contribute to the death."

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine said about 30% of COVID deaths during the first three months of the pandemic may not have been classified as such -- meaning, if anything, COVID-19 deaths in that period were under-counted.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Centers for Disease Control Understanding Death Data
JAMA Network Deaths Associated With the COVID-19 Pandemic
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
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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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.