Other parts: rootclaim.
One of the issues that was brought up during the debate was if around 50% of deaths attributed to COVID were deaths that were deaths with COVID but not primarily due to COVID.
In the United States the percentage of deaths with underlying cause COVID relative to multiple cause COVID was about 88% in 2020, 87% in 2021, and 73% in 2022. So in the vast majority of deaths certificate where COVID was mentioned anywhere on the certificate, COVID was listed as the underlying cause of death:
>v=fread( " curl -Ls sars2. net/ f/ vital. csv. xz| xz -dc") > v[ cause==" U071",.( ucd=sum( ucd), mcd=sum( mcd)), year][, ratio: =ucd/ mcd][]| > print( r=F) year ucd mcd ratio 2020 350831 397566 0. 8824472 2021 416893 478402 0. 8714282 2022 186552 254355 0. 7334316 2023 49932 77264 0. 6462518
The death record data that is used at CDC WONDER can be downloaded
from CDC's website as fixed-width text files. [https://
For example in the year 2021, both the fixed-width files and CDC WONDER have 416,893 deaths with the underlying cause of death U07.1 (COVID). But 314,103 or about 75% of the death records also had one of these respiratory-related ICD codes: J18.9 (Pneumonia, unspecified), J80 (Adult respiratory distress syndrome), J96.0 (Acute respiratory failure), J96.9 (Respiratory failure, unspecified), or R09.2 (Respiratory arrest):
library(readr); library( data. table) system( " wget https:// ftp. cdc. gov/ pub/ Health_ Statistics/ NCHS/ Datasets/ DVS/ mortality/ mort2021us. zip; unzip mort2021us. zip") t=setDT( read_ fwf( " VS21MORT. DUSMCPUB_ r20230320. txt", fwf_ cols( restatus=c( 20, 20), age=c( 70, 73), ucod=c( 146, 149), cause1=c( 165, 170), cause2=c( 172, 177), cause3=c( 179, 184), cause4=c( 186, 191), cause5=c( 193, 198), cause6=c( 200, 205), cause7=c( 207, 212), cause8=c( 214, 219), cause9=c( 221, 226), cause10=c( 228, 233), cause11=c( 235, 240), cause12=c( 242, 247), cause13=c( 249, 254), cause14=c( 256, 261), cause15=c( 263, 268), cause16=c( 270, 275), cause17=c( 277, 282), cause18=c( 284, 289), cause19=c( 291, 296), cause20=c( 298, 303)), col_ types=cols( cause14=col_ character()))) t=t[ restatus! =4] t[, age: =ifelse( age%/% 1000% in% c( 1, 9), age%% 1000, 0)] l=na. omit( t[,.( id=. I, age, pos=rep( 1: 20, each=. N), ucod, cause=unlist(. SD,, F)),. SDcols=patterns( " cause")]) l[, line: =substr( cause, 1, 1)][, code: =substr( cause, 3, 6)] ua=\( x, y,...){ u=unique( x); y( u,...)[ match( x, u)]} dotcode=\( x) ifelse( x% like% "^ ", substr( x, 2, 4), sub( "(...)(.) ", "\\ 1.\\ 2", x)) l[, code: =ua( code, dotcode)][, ucod: =ua( ucod, dotcode)] icd=fread( " http:// sars2. net/ f/ wondericd. csv")[, setNames( cause, code)] sub=l[ ucod==" U07. 1"] sub[, length( unique( id))] # 416893 (UCD is COVID) sub[code% like% "^( J80| J18. 9| J96. 0| J96. 9| R09. 2)$ ", length( unique( id))] # 314103 (UCD is COVID and MCD includes other common respiratory codes)
And there are probably many other cases where a person died due to a respiratory illness, but COVID was the only respiratory-related cause of death that was listed on the death certificate.
The causes of death in a US death certificate are divided in two parts, where part 1 consists of the causes of death which directly led to the death, and part 2 consists of contributing conditions. The first line of part 1 is intended to contain the "immediate cause of death", which is the final event which occurred right before the death. The second line of part 1 is meant to show the condition which triggered the immediate cause of death, and the third line is meant to show the condition which triggered the condition on the second line, and so on. The underlying cause of death is the condition which triggered the cascade of events that led to the death. If for example the conditions in the record below were filed in the order of causality, then the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest, which was caused by acute respiratory failure, which was caused by pneumonia, which was caused by the underlying cause of death COVID:
Age 52,UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: I46. 9 Cardiac arrest, unspecified Part 1, line 2: J96. 0 Acute respiratory failure Part 1, line 3: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 1, line 4: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: N17. 9 Acute renal failure, unspecified Part 2: E11. 9 Non- insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus, withou... Part 2: E66. 8 Other obesity Part 2: I69. 4 Sequelae of stroke, not specified as haemorrhag...
However often the causes of death in part 1 are not filled in following an order of causality, like for example here where it looks like respiratory failure triggered chronic kidney disease which triggered COVID:
Age 65,UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 2: N18. 5 Chronic kidney disease, stage 5 Part 1, line 3: J96. 9 Respiratory failure, unspecified
Or here it looks like cardiac arrest triggered respiratory arrest which triggered COVID:
Age 57,UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 2: R09. 2 Respiratory arrest Part 1, line 3: I46. 9 Cardiac arrest, unspecified
CDC's guidelines for filling COVID death certificates mention that
it's a common error that the causes of death in part 1 are not listed in
the order of causality: [https://
But anyway, when I selected 10 random people who died with underlying cause COVID in 2021, 8 of the people also had some other respiratory-related ICD code included in part 1 of the death certificate. The immediate cause of death was listed as COVID among 4 people, respiratory failure among 3 people, and adult respiratory distress syndrome among 2 people.
For example the first person shown below has cancers of rectum, mouth, and pharynx listed as contributing causes of death in part 2, but in part 1 the underlying cause is listed as COVID, which led to pneumonia, which led to adult respiratory distress syndrome as the immediate cause of death:
>set. seed( 0) > sub[ id% in% sample( unique( id), 10), paste0( " Age ", age[ 1], ", UCD ", ucod[ 1], " ", icd[ ucod[ 1]], ":\ n", paste0( ifelse( line==6, " Part 2", paste0( " Part 1, line ", line)), ": ", code, " ", icd[ code], collapse="\ n")), id]$ V1| > writeLines( sep="\ n\ n") Age 61, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: J80 Adult respiratory distress syndrome Part 1, line 2: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 1, line 3: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: C80 Malignant neoplasm without specification of site Part 2: C20 Malignant neoplasm of rectum Part 2: C06. 9 Mouth, unspecified - Malignant neoplasms Part 2: C14. 0 Pharynx, unspecified - Malignant neoplasms Age 70, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: R68. 8 Other specified general symptoms and signs Part 1, line 2: A41. 9 Septicaemia, unspecified Part 1, line 3: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 3: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 2: E14. 9 Unspecified diabetes mellitus, without complica... Part 2: I48 Atrial fibrillation and flutter Age 70, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: J96. 9 Respiratory failure, unspecified Part 1, line 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 2: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Age 81, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: J80 Adult respiratory distress syndrome Part 1, line 2: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 1, line 3: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Age 79, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: E14. 9 Unspecified diabetes mellitus, without complica... Age 92, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 1: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 2: G30. 9 Alzheimer disease, unspecified Part 2: F20. 0 Paranoid schizophrenia Part 2: I10 Essential (primary) hypertension Age 94, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 1: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 1, line 2: I21. 4 Acute subendocardial myocardial infarction Part 1, line 3: I50. 9 Heart failure, unspecified Part 1, line 4: N18. 9 Chronic renal failure, unspecified Age 51, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: J96. 9 Respiratory failure, unspecified Part 1, line 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 2: B99 Other and unspecified infectious diseases Part 2: F17. 9 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of ... Age 99, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Age 90, UCD U07. 1 COVID- 19: Part 1, line 1: J96. 9 Respiratory failure, unspecified Part 1, line 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 1, line 2: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified
On the list above there is only one death certificate where COVID was the only listed cause of death. Some people have made claims like that 98% of death certificates include some other cause of death besides COVID, which means that only 2% of people died only due to COVID and no other cause. However typically even if the only known cause of death would be COVID, a death certificate might still list COVID as the underlying cause of death, pneumonia as an intermediate cause of death, and respiratory failure as the immediate cause of death.
CDC's guidelines for filling a COVID death certificate says: "If COVID-19 played a role in the death, this condition
should be specified on the death certificate. In many cases, it is
likely that it will be the UCOD, as it can lead to various
life-threatening conditions, such as pneumonia and acute respiratory
distress syndrome (ARDS). In these cases,
COVID-19 should be reported on the lowest line used in Part I with the
other conditions to which it gave rise listed on the lines above
it." [https://
Denis Rancourt claimed that because pneumonia was listed as a cause
of death in more than half of US death certificates with UCD COVID, it
meant that "more than half of the deaths assigned as
COVID-19 deaths could include life-threatening co-occurring bacterial
pneumonia". [https://
In the year 2021 there were 462,193 deaths where COVID was listed anywhere on the death certificate:
>l[ code==" U07. 1", length( unique( id))] [ 1] 462193
But in only about 10% of the death certificates COVID was listed in part 2 of the certificate, which means that COVID was considered to have contributed to the death but not be part of the primary sequence of events which led to the death:
>l[ line==6& code==" U07. 1", length( unique( id))] # line 6 is part 2 and lines 1- [5 are lines of part 1 1] 44859
Some people seem to think that COVID is commonly listed as a cause of death for people who die from external causes like car accidents or drug overdoses. However I found only 2,279 people who died in 2021 with UCD external causes but MCD COVID:
>sub=l[ id% in% id[ code==" U07. 1"]][ ucod% like% "[ V- Z] "] > sub[, length( unique( id))] [ 1] 2279
Here's a random sample of 4 out of the 2,279 people:
>set. seed( 0) > sub[ id% in% sample( unique( id), 4), cat( paste0( " Age ", age[ 1], ", UCD ", ucod[ 1], " ", icd[ ucod[ 1]], ":\ n", paste0( ifelse( line==6, " Part 2", paste0( " Part 1, line ", line)), ": ", code, " ", icd[ code], collapse="\ n"), "\ n\ n")), id] Age 28, UCD X42 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucin...: Part 1, line 1: T40. 4 Other synthetic narcotics Part 1, line 1: X42 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucin... Part 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: B99 Other and unspecified infectious diseases Part 2: F11. 9 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of opioids, unspecified mental and b... Age 34, UCD Y85. 0 Sequelae of motor- vehicle accident: Part 1, line 1: J96. 0 Acute respiratory failure Part 1, line 1: J96. 1 Chronic respiratory failure Part 1, line 1: R09. 0 Asphyxia Part 1, line 1: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 1, line 1: A41. 9 Septicaemia, unspecified Part 1, line 2: T90. 5 Sequelae of intracranial injury Part 1, line 2: T94. 1 Sequelae of injuries, not specified by body region Part 2: I10 Essential (primary) hypertension Part 2: T91. 3 Sequelae of injury of spinal cord Part 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: Y85. 0 Sequelae of motor- vehicle accident Part 2: F17. 9 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of tobacco, unspecified mental and b... Age 30, UCD X42 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucin...: Part 1, line 1: T40. 4 Other synthetic narcotics Part 1, line 1: X42 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucin... Part 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: B99 Other and unspecified infectious diseases Part 2: F19. 9 Mental and behavioural disorders due to multiple drug use and use of other psych... Age 71, UCD X59. 9 Exposure to unspecified factor causing other and unspecified injury: Part 1, line 1: S06. 5 Traumatic subdural haemorrhage Part 1, line 2: S09. 9 Unspecified injury of head Part 1, line 2: X59. 9 Exposure to unspecified factor causing other and unspecified injury Part 2: U07. 1 COVID- 19 Part 2: J18. 9 Pneumonia, unspecified Part 2: I10 Essential (primary) hypertension Part 2: J44. 9 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, unspecified Part 2: J44. 1 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with acute exacerbation, unspecified Part 2: F17. 9 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of tobacco, unspecified mental and b...
In the output above the second person had the underlying cause of death "Sequelae of motor-vehicle accident" but the immediate cause of death acute respiratory failure. So maybe they got COVID while they were hospitalized after a traffic accident and the COVID contributed to their death.
The first and third person above seem to have died of an overdose of recreational drugs and the fourth person seems to have died of a head injury, so none of them should probably not be counted as COVID deaths. However cases like that are probably not too common, since only about 0.5% of MCD COVID deaths in 2021 had UCD external causes.
The code below shows 10 random VAERS reports from the year 2021 of
people who received a COVID vaccine and died later. [https://
t=fread(" 2021VAERSDATA. csv") t=merge( t, fread( " 2021VAERSVAX. csv")) t=merge( t, fread( " 2021VAERSSYMPTOMS. csv")) set. seed( 0) o=t[ VAX_ TYPE==" COVID19" & DIED==" Y"][ sample(. N, 10)] o=o[,.( VAERS_ ID, AGE_ YRS, VAX_ DATE, ONSET_ DATE, DATEDIED, SYMPTOM1, SYMPTOM2, SYMPTOM3, SYMPTOM4, SYMPTOM5, SYMPTOM_ TEXT)] writeLines( apply( o, 1,\( x) paste( paste0( names( o), ": ", x), collapse="\ n")), sep="\ n\ n")
#90- VAERS_year- old who had a fall a month after vaccination and died with cardiac dysrhytmia in ER ID: 1924852 AGE_ YRS: 90 VAX_ DATE: 11/ 09/ 2021 ONSET_ DATE: 12/ 03/ 2021 DATEDIED: 12/ 03/ 2021 SYMPTOM1: Haematocrit decreased SYMPTOM2: Haemoglobin decreased SYMPTOM3: International normalised ratio normal SYMPTOM4: Lymphocyte percentage decreased SYMPTOM5: Mean cell haemoglobin concentration decreased SYMPTOM_ TEXT: No immediate adverse events or signs/ symptoms post vaccination. On 12/ 03/ 2021 at approximately 1420 Patient was found on the floor by staff from a fall incident he was complaining of pain to neck and back and due to personal hx of cervical fractures EMS notified for transport to ER. Poor oxygenation noted and oxygen applied via nasal cannula while awaiting EMS transport to Hospital ER. At approximately 1700 Nursing Home received word that all scans/ x- rays were normal and resident would be returning to Nursing Home. Some time after this notification while resident was still in the ER he developed a cardiac dysrhythmia which he succumbed to. # died 2 months after vaccination likely of cancer VAERS_ID: 1212176 AGE_ YRS: 75 VAX_ DATE: 02/ 08/ 2021 ONSET_ DATE: 03/ 18/ 2021 DATEDIED: 04/ 14/ 2021 SYMPTOM1: Adenocarcinoma metastatic SYMPTOM2: Death SYMPTOM3: Femur fracture SYMPTOM4: SYMPTOM5: SYMPTOM_ TEXT: Death Metastatic adenocarcinoma Intertrochanteric fracture of left femur # was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 3 years before vaccination #developed a respiratory condition and pneumonia due to an unspecified cause about a week after vaccination VAERS_ID: 1744676 AGE_ YRS: 78 VAX_ DATE: 02/ 18/ 2021 ONSET_ DATE: 02/ 24/ 2021 DATEDIED: 03/ 26/ 2021 SYMPTOM1: Death SYMPTOM2: Dyspnoea SYMPTOM3: Feeling abnormal SYMPTOM4: Flank pain SYMPTOM5: Gait inability SYMPTOM_ TEXT: See continuation page o Jan 2018 Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung/ brain/ lymph node cancer o Feb 25th: Mom was brought to ER for a respiratory issue. Full set of tests were done, nothing was found and she was sent home. ER was happy she was going to see her primary the next day for follow up. o Feb 27th: Mom woke up feeling ok, by afternoon she was too weak to walk and brought back to the ER. Lungs shown with pneumonia and inflammation. Mom was admitted to ICU that evening. o Feb 28th: Mom seemed ok in ICU, but oxygen demands increased. o Mar 1st: Mom was placed on bi- pap o Mar 2nd: Mom was placed on vent o March 8th: Mom fought back and was able to come off vent o March 12th: Due to lack of rooms in ICU (from my understanding), Mom was moved to medical o March 13th: Mom expressed pain behind knee (maybe referred pain due to bleeding noted on the 14th) o March 14th: Mom had severe side pain, blood work indicated potential internal bleed. Hours later a CT scan was done and confirmed bleeding. Plan was to give her plasma and maybe other drugs to hopefully stop the bleed (that doesn' t make complete sense to me, but I' m not a doctor). Mom said she " Felt like she was dying". The nurse said that given Mom' s condition, it would be best that someone spend the night with her. I relieved my sister around 8: 30 that night. Mom was receiving plasma and whole blood. I asked the nurse if her blood pressure and pulse were monitored at the nurses station, she said no but she would come in every hour to check (note additional checks were done every 15 minutes when a blood transfusion was started). Mom' s door was closed due to 4 other psych patients on the floor making a lot of noise, so I was the only one to hear alarms. Mom was too weak and couldn' t press the nurse button when her side pain increased after 10 pm. I pushed the button for her, a couple minutes later a nurse came on the intercom wondering what Mom needed, and what felt like 10 minutes later a nurse arrived. Around 11: 15 pain meds were administered but didn' t have any impact initially. I questioned whether Mom should be in the ICU given the internal bleed, pain, and number of units of blood/ plasma she was receiving (in my mind she was critical enough not to be on a medical floor where there is a high patient to nurse count and no continuous monitoring of vitals). o March 15th The on call doctor came in around 12: 30 am, I think, after pain meds started to settle Mom. His first words, which I felt were said in a stern way, were " I hear you want your Mom moved to ICU". I expressed my concerns and that I was just trying to do what was best for Mom. His voice softened and he said there is nothing more that ICU can do. My impression was that he stated they would give more blood and if vitals drop, then move her to ICU. Nurse came back in after the doctor left (note I felt the nurse did a great job that night) and said the doctor wanted her to discuss with me re- evaluating whether Mom should be a full code... It is very confusing since I felt the doctor was saying she was stable enough to stay on the medical floor, but then have the full code reconsidered at 1: 00 in the morning by family... I was in full tears after she left, didn' t sleep, and said a few rosaries. At 3: 30 am Mom was moved to ICU. By 6 or 7 am Mom had received 5 units of blood and 5 units of plasmas, which I believe is as much as the body can hold... Around 7: 15 am there was a clear indication on the monitor that Mom' s blood pressure was dropping linearly over last hour. Her breathing over night was 18 and normal, but increased to over 20 was very labored. Her heart rate went from 90s to 114. I walked over to ICU nurse with tears and there is a scary trend happening, do I need to call family in. She stated that " Mom is in the right place and no need to call family". But took no action to correct decline. Her only action was to get zophrane (or similar drug) since Mom was nauseous. It wasn' t until after the doctor came in after 8: 15 am that the decision was made to transport. At that point family was allowed to come in 1 by 1. It was also the same time that the snow storm started and Mom had to go by ambulance, which by time coordinating wass complete didn' t happen until 11 am. Mom was given blood pressure medication which helped initially, but by time Mom reached it we were told her blood pressure was 37/ 19. It feels if action was taken over night, Mom could have been flown and the blood pressure might not have dropped that far. Mom' s procedure was successful to stop bleeding. o March 16th: We were told that given the amount of fluid Mom' s lungs were starting to fill with fluid again and given low blood pressure on arrival, her kidneys were shutting down. o March 17th: Mom was placed on hospice o March 18th: Mom was brought home o March 26th: Mom went peacefully to heaven # died 6 months after vaccination but 8 days after testing positive for COVID VAERS_ID: 1623505 AGE_ YRS: 89 VAX_ DATE: 02/ 25/ 2021 ONSET_ DATE: 08/ 10/ 2021 DATEDIED: 08/ 18/ 2021 SYMPTOM1: Death SYMPTOM2: Dyspnoea SYMPTOM3: Myalgia SYMPTOM4: Oxygen saturation decreased SYMPTOM5: Pulseless electrical activity SYMPTOM_ TEXT: 8/ 10/ 21: He developed SOB, cough, and muscle aches, starting 3 days ago. He was referred to ER, where he was admitted on 8/ 10/ 21. Tested positive for COVID- 19 on 8/ 10/ 21. 8/ 18/ 21: waxing and waning mentation, requires non- rebreather mask and desaturates quickly. In the afternoon of 8/ 18/ 21, he was found in cardiac arrest, PEA and code was called. Family requested to stop resuscitation given his age and poor prognosis. Time of death was called at 1628. Note: He received Pfizer vaccines on 2/ 3/ 21 and 2/ 25/ 21. # this might be a real vaccine death in case the story is true #however the 5 USD coupon adds a dramatic element that makes the story seem less believable #the death might have also been due to an overdose of a recreational drug VAERS_ID: 1427998 AGE_ YRS: 47 VAX_ DATE: