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Thanks to the wording of the CARES Act, hospitals that list deaths as being due to COVID-19, or have patients on ventilators, get more relief money. This has led some opponents of COVID-related lockdowns to doubt official reporting. Those skeptical of the numbers argue that medical staff are incentivized to report non-COVID respiratory issues as being due to the novel coronavirus.
Some skeptics have gone so far as suggesting random deaths in hospitals, like from those from stroke triggered by AFib, are being counted as COVID deaths. There is no evidence to support these theories.
This echoes earlier sentiments that the Chinese government was misrepresenting their cases. However, in this vein, skeptics are arguing that US cases and deaths may be lower in hospitals than is being reported. At the same time, surveying with antibody tests have recently shown the general population may have been more widely infected by the coronavirus than initially expected.
Recent frustrations with COVID-19 lockdown orders have led to some angry protestors taking to the streets. The protestors demand an immediate end to measures they say are strangling local economies. To medical experts and cautious onlookers, they seem completely disconnected from reality. To sympathetic activists, they sound like the lone voice of reason in a world gone crazy.
This disconnect is powerful, in fact. Much like the modern American political landscape, the difference between the two camps seems impossible to bridge. On the one hand, there are those who feel like COVID is a severe threat, and anything that can be done to prevent COVID deaths is what the entire country should be doing. They note that the US is rapidly approaching over one million confirmed cases.
The other side holds that the lockdowns, which were initially sensible, have become overkill. They point to declining use of emergency supplies and the availability of ICU beds. Skeptics of the lockdown, generally, don’t seem to be arguing that COVID isn’t serious. Instead, they believe that the response to the disease is being overblown.
At the time of this writing, there is no evidence that any hospitals have reported more COVID deaths than they have actually witnessed. But skeptics presume the virus is under better control than we know. These skeptics often point to recent surveys that suggest the virus spread widely through the population already.
If the virus has spread widely, that could suggest that the worst of the virus is over. People with antibodies against the coronavirus will help confer herd immunity to communities across the US. By the time their antibodies are wearing off, optimists hope, a treatment or vaccine for COVID will be available. However, whether this scenario is realistic or not is still a question up in the air.
