The governor of Colorado is pushing back against coronavirus data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, claiming people want to know who died directly from the COVID-19 virus rather than those who had tested positive at the time of their death.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis joined Fox News’s Chris Wallace on Sunday after it was reported that 300 fewer people in Colorado have died directly from the coronavirus than was originally reported, according to revised data from the state.
“The CDC criteria include anybody who has died with COVID-19, but what the people of Colorado and the people of the country want to know is, how many people died of COVID-19?” Polis told Fox News Sunday.
Just last week, a Colorado county coroner disputed the state’s claim that a man had died from the coronavirus. The unidentified person did test positive for the coronavirus, but his cause of death was actually alcohol poisoning, according to Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers.
“COVID was not listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. I disagree with the state for listing it as a COVID death and will be discussing it with them this week,” Deavers said.
Polis’s comments come as people across the country question the accuracy of coronavirus case data. White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Deborah Birx reportedly suggested coronavirus death figures in the United States could be inflated by up to 25% due to the way deaths have been coded in hospitals.
“There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust,” she said in May.
In New York, it was revealed last week that coronavirus deaths from nursing homes were purposely undercounted after a significant number of people were dying from the virus in long-term facilities.
“One of the reasons that we wanted to make sure we reported it out in a better way was to inspire confidence so that it wouldn’t be politicized, Chris” Polis said in the interview. “These are deaths that should not be politicized.”
