Should coronavirus fatalities be included in the official tally of coronavirus deaths if the victim only died «with» the virus, as opposed to «because of» it? That’s the question people are asking, in light of a newly revealed episode in Florida (which is now the epicenter of the coronavirus …
Anybody who watched HBO’s landmark series The Wire will remember the storyline involving Baltimore city cops and the pressure they faced from the top brass to show progress in the fight against crime — which led, inevitably, to cops “juking the stats.” You could do things like under-report crimes or arrest more people for small crimes, and it makes it look like the cops are winning. Later, Detective Pryzbylewski becomes a teacher in the Baltimore city schools and realizes it’s the same story there. Only, “juking the stats” in that case meant “teaching for the test” so the school can improve students’ standardized test scores — never mind whether kids are actually, genuinely, you know… learning.
Meanwhile, is a bit of the same thing happening right now, during the coronavirus pandemic, when it comes to the official death tallies? Maybe, especially when you consider revelations like this one from a local TV news station in Orlando which found that a man was included in the local coronavirus death numbers … even though he’d died in a motorcycle crash.
