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In one Missouri county, families can opt to exclude COVID-19 from a loved one's death certificate

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Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,098
I came across this story from the Kanas City Star. One Missouri county is allowing families to exclude COVID-19 as a contributing cause of death from their loved one's death certificate. According to the article, Missouri has a history of this practice: In the 1980s, families could have HIV/AIDS excluded from death certificates to spare them or their deceased loved ones the stigma associated with the disease at the time.

Macon County Coroner Brian Hayes handles the death certificates for this cattle, corn and soybean region of 15,000 in north-central Missouri, near Kirksville — roughly 130 to 140 deaths each year. That includes certifying the deaths of the few dozen residents who have succumbed to the coronavirus.

And in some cases, it has meant excluding COVID-19 from death certificates.

COVID-19 is as much a political issue as a personal tragedy for some families. They don't want the virus on any official record for their dead loved one. For others, restrictions on hospital or nursing home visits made death and the grieving process almost unbearable. The word "COVID" had become a cruel reminder of how they couldn't see their family members as they lay dying and, ultimately, of what they had lost.

So the solution: Leaving COVID-19 off the death certificate entirely — an ethically questionable approach frowned on by much of the U.S. medical community as it tries to ascertain the the deadly extent of the pandemic in rural sections of the country and halt its spread.
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Allowing families to omit COVID-19 on loved ones' death certificates has changed Macon County's official coronavirus death toll from upwards of 30 down to 19, according to state and local estimates. The lower death toll is also reflected in statewide figures maintained by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
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"They think it's so taboo," said Cheryl Blaise, 68, who retired from Missouri's health department and now is a part-time employee for Macon County's health department. "It's kind of like, 'Oh my God, you've got HIV and you died from it, we're not putting that on the death certificate.' But you would certainly put influenza on there."
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The undercounting of COVID-19 deaths can also lead to other unintended issues, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, a nonprofit organization for public health leaders.

"It has fiscal implications. It has implications around infectious diseases, and for the science … We make a lot of decisions about how we distribute resources based on the incidence of a disease in a community," he said.
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WillyFive

WillyFive

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,978
Seems a bit odd for that practice to still be around, but social stigmas can be immense in locations with small populations.
 
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