Jeremy C Kester

I am a data guy, so I typically only look at a limited number of sites when I am looking for news on the COVID-19/SARS-2 pandemic. I like to see numbers, facts, absolutes when I am trying to make some decisions, not that I can make any legitimate decisions. Even in understanding what is really going on, it is more useful to see data breakdowns rather than working on emotions, ideas, opinions, etc. Data speaks.

The problem is that the data can be corrupted by ideas and opinions. In many ways, this is what we are seeing through both sides of the aisle in this long-term event. We know for one that anyone who dies and had COVID, then it is a COVID death. There’ve also been reports of deaths being marked incorrectly with reasons ranging from conspiracy to a means for hospitals to recover costs that they would otherwise lose due to their lack of patients outside of the virus. So in some cases the data that we use can be skewed to favor one thing or another.

Regardless, we should follow where it leads us, verify reliability, and then given what data does show, we refine it, look at other indicators to verify correlations, trends, etc. With all that being said, here is what I would like to know that I haven’t found yet:

How many of the COVID deaths are caused directly from the virus?

How many deaths have occurred for other reasons (accident, suicide, etc) that because the victim had the virus, were listed as such?

What deaths listed from COVID could be classified in a gray area, such as a cardiac-arrest victim where it is unclear if the virus sparked the episode or not?

How many COVID deaths also had preexisting conditions and what were those conditions? What conditions were more at risk?

How many deaths listed for COVID are unconfirmed, meaning that the victim had symptoms but was not tested?

Were there any vitamin deficiencies that were more likely to result in death if COVID was contracted?

Once these questions are answered, we can then formulate more questions, make better decisions. But let’s know what is going on now. Let’s find out what is happening now. Wait until this is over to play Monday-morning-quarterback on all the decisions that were made up to this point. There’ll be plenty of blame to pass around, much of it deserved, but at least wait until this is over.