CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – As of Tuesday night, more than 536,000 people in the United States had died of COVID-19, including more than 5,600 Iowans.
Several experts told our KCRG-TV9 i9 investigation unit that the numbers are likely to be higher than reported.
This is because many Iowans die from COVID-19-like symptoms and that the cases are not necessarily further investigated. Death certificates found i9 show that Iowane dies respiratory conditions due to an underlying cause of pneumonia. Provincial staff members also told us of a similar trend.
Dr. James Gill, who is the chief medical examiner in Connecticut, said these are cases that need to be investigated further because there is probably another condition that is causing pneumonia.
“Pneumonia in itself really raises questions,” Gill said. “Well, ‘why did the person get pneumonia’ and that’s the question you need to ask. ‘
Gill said deaths caused by pneumonia can be caused by a large number of underlying conditions, including dementia, homicide or even COVID-19.
“I mean we had deaths where someone was certified pneumonia and you examined it and you noticed, well, they have pneumonia because they quadrupled because they got a gunshot two years ago,” Gill said. “And so the gunshot wound is actually the underlying cause of death, and if you do not look for the underlying cause of the death, you will miss such deaths.”
Gill also said that at the beginning of the pandemic, Connecticut saw many death certificates with pneumonia being certified as the original cause, and later reclassified as COVID-19 deaths.
“We went to funeral homes and washed the body at the funeral home to see if it was infected or not,” Gill said. ‘And we’ve found that dozens of people who are positive about COVID-19 and older are certified as COVID-19 deaths. Although COVID-19 in the original death certificate was not the cause of death. ”
In Iowa, medical researchers do not examine every death. According to state law, they should only investigate deaths of public interest, such as murders or infectious diseases. It does not include pneumonia or respiratory conditions. Gill said the law penalizes medical examiners in a way because they often have to rely on doctors and city clerks to report cases to them.
There are also the deaths of COVID-19 that not even medical investigators knew to investigate.
Dr. Donald Linder, who is the Linn County medical examiner, said people sometimes did not die with COVID-19, but the cases were not initially reported to his office.
“Well, in the first few months of the pandemic, we first learned, second or third hand, that the person had COVID,” Linder said. “Like, admit you had to tell us.”
Linder said that and a lack of testing probably means the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is lower than the actual number of deaths in the state.
“There is no doubt that the deaths were underreported or slipped through the cracks,” Linder said.
Data from the Iowa Department of Public Health show that deaths have increased in 2020 and 2021.
The state has experienced problems in reporting deaths related to COVID-19 in the past. In November, i9 learned that Iowa’s data portal for COVID-19 reported among the deaths in some provinces in the state. At the time, the Appanoose County Department of Health reported 27 deaths in the country, but the state’s data portal reported only 9 deaths.
A similar difference was in Linn County. The Linn County Department of Public Health reported 183 deaths as of Wednesday. The state’s data portal reported 162 deaths.
The discrepancy occurred because the state at the time required a positive PCR test and meant that those who died from the virus and did not have a positive PCR test were not counted as dead. It was changed in December and it allows medical professionals to determine if the death is related to the virus.
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