Thread by @jeremyrhammond

Referring to children aged 5-11, the @nytimes quotes a top #CDC official saying that #COVID19 is "the eight-highest killer of kids in this age group over the past year". This is a deception. 1/7
nytimes.com/2021/10/26/us/…

We can see that it's a deception by turning to the source, a CDC presentation to the FDA also cited in the @nytimes article. In it is this slide ranking "66 COVID-19 associated deaths in children 5-11" in the past year among leading causes of death. 2/7
fda.gov/media/153508/d…

The data on top causes of death in children aged 5-11 comes from the CDC WONDER database. Here is what it shows for leading 15 causes of death for children aged 5-11 in 2019, the most recent year for which there is data. 3/7
wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html

Notice that COVID-19 does not appear among the 15 leading causes of death, much less at position 8. Now look again at the CDC slide: it is comparing "COVID-19 associated deaths" with top UNDERLYING CAUSES of death.
4/7

A "COVID-19 associated" death is a death that occurs after diagnosis with COVID-19. It does NOT mean that COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death. It doesn't even necessarily mean that COVID-19 was a contributing factor. 5/7

So, we can see that the CDC has taken the total number of children who died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and ranking that number with the leading underlying causes of death (UCOD) in 2019, then falsely presented the number 66 as though COVID-19 was the UCOD. 6/7

And the @nytimes, of course, unquestioningly parrots that CDC deception as though gospel truth. We're left with the question: How many children who died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 was it listed as the underlying cause of death, and why isn't the CDC saying? 7/7