Conflicting COVID Numbers Troubling

To the Editor:

The headline story for the July 31 edition of the Record was that the State counted 12 deaths from COVID in Fayette County while the County counted only five. There was subsequently another fatality bringing the State count to 13. The State gave their source of data as an actual count of death certificates in which the certifier had listed COVID as the cause of death. I didn’t see any corresponding information from the county as to the source of their data.

I saw in the Aug. 4 edition of the Record that the county now says six have died of COVID here in Fayette.

Fatality statistics are difficult to talk about especially when the deaths are local, but I’m afraid it has to be done. Our Emergency Management Chief, Craig Moreau, is quoted as saying he doesn’t know who the other seven fatalities are. I doubt the state made an error in counting death certificates, so I’m reasonably sure the families and loved ones of those 7 people do know who they are.

Some of us depend on such statistics to make a judgment about the level of risk in resuming normal activities. I must make a monthly decision, for example, to re-open our shop or not. So far we have decided not. The amount of conflicting “information” from different levels of government – state, federal, and local – is troubling. We have a right I believe to expect better.

Dewain Belgard

Carmine