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Daily Wire reported on the adjustment that the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) had to make make after hundreds of deaths were incorrectly reported as deaths related to the coronavirus.
The department tweeted the announcement that “DSHS corrects COVID-19 fatality counts for the week of July 27,”. The department blamed “an automation error” for the miscount and explained that the original number included deaths where COV-19 was not the direct cause of death, only present at death.
The tweet brought users to the department website, which further explained the incorrect data released.
The deaths reported for July 27, 28, and 29 required adjustments after the mistake was discovered. The error accounted for an additional 225 deaths to be included with the number of fatalities on those days.
The department rectified the situation with a manual count of the deaths and posted the news data Wednesday night.
DSHS corrects COVID-19 fatality counts for the week of July 27.
An automation error caused 225 fatalities to be included even though COVID-19 was not listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate. #COVID19TX dashboard: https://t.co/ofycOLqWQZ pic.twitter.com/4mKBzjIrfO
— Texas DSHS (@TexasDSHS) July 30, 2020
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On Friday, coronavirus task force members, including leading White House voice Dr. Anthony Fauci and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield, testified before the House Select Subcommittee concerning the virus and the nation’s strategy.
Dr. Fauci said he’s hopeful a “safe and effective” vaccine will be available for Americans by the late fall or early winter, USA Today reported.
In prepared remarks, Redfield advised Americans to get a flu shot this year.
“If there is COVID-19 and flu activity at the same time, this could place a tremendous burden on the health care system related to bed occupancy, laboratory testing needs, personal protective equipment and health care worker safety,” he said.
Earlier this month, Redfield promoted the general reopening of schools during a Buck Institute Webinar streamed on July 14. The CDC director highlighted the low coronavirus risk for children without preexisting conditions and the unfortunate spike in suicides and drug overdoses, which Redfield said are “far greater” in number than COVID-linked deaths in the young.
“It’s not risk of school openings versus public health. It’s public health versus public health,” asserted Redfield.
“When we look at, right now, the mortality of this particular COVID virus, in the first almost 218,000 people we looked at February to July, there was 52 individuals under the age of 18,” the director explained. “And if I recollect, about 35 were actually school age. Some of them were younger than school age. We’re looking critically at those individuals. And, you know, clearly, there’s an increase in comorbidities related to significant medical conditions…”
— Advertisement — “But I think that’s important because what that means, actually, is the risk per 100,000, so far, you know, into the outbreak, six months into it, is, in fact, that we’re looking at about .1 per 100,000,” he said. “So another way to say that, it’s one in a million.”
“Now, I’m not trying to belittle that,” emphasized Redfield, “I’m just trying to make sure we look at it proportional. Because if you do the same thing for influenza deaths for school-age children over the last five years, they’re anywhere from five to 10 times greater.”
