Death Certificate Clerk confirms deaths were wrongly labelled as Covid-19 to boost numbers [07/07/21]

Although revered as the guiding star for science, clinical practice and legislation aimed to save lives, cause-of-death reporting does not meet any basic criteria of objective fact. Across continents, from 40 years ago to present day, death certificates, which provide the basis for our beliefs as to why we die, have been found to be erroneous in their causal conclusions 20-60% of the time according to the peer-reviewed literature.

The daily process of obtaining cause-of-death information, which I was an eyewitness to, is not a process of careful investigation, but rather a rushed and apathetic bureaucratic tumbling machine that incentivizes compliance over recording the complexity of truth. 

By Joy Fritz – a former Death Certificate Clerk who worked at two separate mortuary firms for over 6 years

In this piece I offer a personal account, a logical argument and the scientific evidence for the claim that mortality statistics derived from cause-of-death reporting on death certificates are an unstable material upon which to build actionable scientific or societal beliefs about risk. Then I provide an in-depth examination of the very particular situation of COVID death reporting manipulation that happened beginning in March of 2020, infused politicized bias into an already defunct system.

Lastly, you will find a call to action, with steps that we, the individuals affected by the inaccurate data capture, can take to hold the regulatory bodies responsible for this to account, as well as volunteer and support opportunities to help those who need to get erroneous death certificates officially amended. 

Being a former death certificate clerk, and having spent nearly 7 years in the funeral home industry ushering thousands of death certificates from digital creation to final registration, I am appalled that death certificate data is codified for use as our national mortality statistics. 

I was trained in the California Electronic Death Registration System (CA-EDRS) in 2013 while working in Los Angeles County for a high volume mortuary. Single-handedly, I would process nearly 1,200 death certificates a year as I was their only death certificate clerk. In 2015, I was hired by a smaller firm where I worked part time doing about ⅓ the case load. At either location I would work daily with doctors, medical examiner/coroner’s offices, and the local and state vital record registrars to accomplish the necessary death certificate registration process after a loved one passed away. 

Having no idea that these records affected society in any tangible way, I never thought twice about the impact my job had in governing the direction of science, medicine and public policy until nearly 4 years into registering death certificates. Since coming to terms with the importance of these records, I began to advocate more and more for an increased quality of the information captured on these documents, and became more critically-minded when it came to health data capture in general. I was blessed to be able to transition into a stay at home mom in March of 2019, but the reality of the incompetence of cause-of-death reporting has been a mission of mine to educate others about since that time. 

The atrocities of basing our liberty, our research dollars and our medical decisions on COVID death statistics this year has compelled me to speak up even more about the inherent fallibility of the death data capture. Aside from some basic demographic tracking of age, place and gender of the deceased, using death certificates for anything beyond closing bank accounts is a disservice to society.

With the rare exception of a medical certifier that has independently chosen to be conscientious and thorough in their certificate completion practices, or the special circumstances of car accidents, overdose, suicides and homicide deaths that lend themselves to robust investigation and reporting protocols, the average natural cause of death reporting on death certificates and the mortality statistics extrapolated from them are not the product of careful investigation, are known to have a 20-60% inaccuracy rate according to the peer-reviewed literature, and are, by definition, variable medical opinions, not facts.

It’s an extremely uncomfortable truth when you look around us at a world enslaved by the daily COVID mortality tallies being reported from every outlet. It’s especially disconcerting if you’ve assumed mortality statistics were somehow exempt from the Twain-ism about statistics being lesser in value to both lies and damn lies. But both the nature and the nurture of cause-of-death data capture flies in the face of any reliability in mortality statistics as structurally sound pillars of objective fact. 

However, unlike the entrenched modern-day mores that demand unquestioning homage to those with special knowledge, I will not ask that you believe me simply because of my professional experience. I am here to offer you three considerations to help you develop your own understanding of cause-of-death data capture so as to create an independence in your own pursuit of truth regarding this underlying societal assumption about the infallibility of mortality data. Perhaps you will find, as I have, that mortality statistics tabulated from death certificates have no business steering public health recommendations or medical decisions, and using them as a metric for scientific research or public policy is about as prudent as building a skyscraper on a sand box. 

Read More – Death Certificate Clerk confirms deaths were wrongly labelled as Covid-19 to boost numbers