Evergreen Reporter

COVID-19 has been nothing short of a controversial pandemic and the recent discovery of gunshot victims being counted among coronavirus deaths is complicating issues further. 

According to Freedom Foundation, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) reported the state is adding persons who have tested positive for the coronavirus but died due to other causes as coronavirus fatalities.

DOH reported in a telephone press briefing they have included several gunshot wound deaths as deaths from the coronavirus. 

The Freedom Foundation issued an original report based on the statements and documents the DOH provided and showed that of the 828 coronvirus deaths as of May 8, 82% included a variation of coronavirus as one of the causes of death. Death certificates that didn't list the virus as the cause of death but as a condition of the death made up 5% and 13% had no connection to the coronavirus but had previously tested positive for it. 

Kate Hutchison, DOH health statistics manager, explained some of the reasoning behind the classification of coronavirus deaths. 

“We don’t always know the cause of death for a death when it is first reported on our dashboard,” Hutchison told Freedom Foundation. “That is true. Over the course of the outbreak, we have been monitoring and recording the causes of death as we know it. We currently do have some deaths that are being reported that are clearly from other causes. We have about five deaths — less than five deaths — that we know of that are related to obvious other causes. In this case, they are from gunshot wounds.”

Hutchison went on to say that the DOH still believes they are under-counting deaths from coronavirus rather than over-counting them. 

“It may take up to a year or more to get final counts on COVID-19 deaths,” Hutchison told Freedom Foundation. 

The Freedom Foundation is hopeful for more transparent records moving forward.