Doctor Says a Rise in "Mystery Deaths" Is Likely Underreporting of COVID-19 Fatalities

Robin Zlotnick - Author
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UPDATED Jun. 15 2020, 11:54 a.m. ET

PUBLISHED Jun. 15 2020, 11:51 a.m. ET

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Source: iStock Photo / Corona Virus Science

Peter Richterich, Ph.D. has worked in the biomedical field for over three decades. He's been using his expertise to publish an educational blog about COVID-19 and all the issues and questions surrounding the virus. And his latest entry, "The Cheating Is Getting Worse," tackles the growing number of "mystery deaths" happening in the United States.

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He explains that "mystery deaths," deaths where a medical examiner could not determine an exact cause of death, usually compose 1.25 percent of deaths, or about 600-650 deaths per week. But since COVID-19 has gone up, the number of "mystery deaths" has been steadily increasing, which means that they probably aren't really that mysterious after all.

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Source: iStock Photo
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In the last two weeks of May alone, there were more than 3,600 "mystery" deaths per week. "You might expect that the alarm bells would be ringing if something kills 3,000 Americans each week — but I have not seen a single news report about this," Dr. Richterich writes. 

That's because, Richterich claims, health officials and governments know that these "mystery" deaths are really "COVID-19 deaths without a positive test." In many states, cases of "probable COVID-19," where the patient hasn't been able to get tested before they die, are not counted in the state's official COVID-19 death toll. 

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Many of these states have way higher numbers of "mystery" deaths compared to official COVID-19 deaths, and many of these states are also the ones that pushed to re-open their economies, like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.

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Source: iStock Photo
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What does all this mean? Well, it means that many states appear to be knowingly lying to residents about how many people are dying from COVID-19. They are not taking these "mystery" deaths into consideration, the vast, vast majority of which are most likely COVID-19, when calculating their COVID-19 death tolls.

They are purposely and willingly "cheating," as Dr. Richterich puts it. They're ignoring data they should absolutely be considering, and they are telling people it's fine to go out when thousands of COVID-19 deaths aren't being reported as such.

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"Either these states need to alert the public that some 'mystery disease' is killing hundreds of people per week, or they pretty much admit by their inaction that they are cheating," Dr. Richterich writes. 

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Source: iStock Photo
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And based on his research, "the cheating is getting worse" because more "mystery" deaths than COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last two weeks of May. Many officials are telling us that COVID-19 cases are only going up because more people are getting tested, but the reality is very different.

The real story is that shelter-at-home orders didn't last long enough. People got tired of staying home, and the federal government didn't step up to provide financial assistance that people needed so they could stay home for a few months and really "flatten the curve."

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So we've been gaslit into thinking the virus isn't spreading as fast as it had been when, in fact, nothing has changed. More people are dying from COVID-19 than are being reported. 

The lesson here is that COVID-19 is still here; it's still spreading, and you are still definitely at risk of catching it, no matter how many governors are telling you to go back to restaurants and bars. Stay home. Wear a mask. Stay vigilant. This is far from over.

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