Deaths are marked by doctors or coroners that generally have a great awareness of why a patient died. State boards of health, the CDC, and Dr. Fauci can’t change the data.
What incentive exists for hundreds of doctors across the nation to falsify records and risk their license? What direct power does the Federal Government have in forcing these individuals to do their bidding? Who stands to benefit from forging the death count? By saying Fauci should be fired for predicting a lower body count, the right is saying “more bodies are a bad thing.” If he had control of this number, why wouldn’t he preserve his job, and why wouldn’t the government inflate it to a number that is closer to original predictions? Why risk the loss of credibility.
COVID-19 starves the body of oxygen and disrupts the other organs, which causes underlying issues to speed up death when the other person would likely have lived longer. The disease caused the death even if the heart stopped working. “He died in a car crash, so mark him as a COVID-19 death” is not happening as the Ron Paul Institute absurdly put it in a hypothetical situation that seems to be gospel now.
Let’s continue the question of “who benefits?” By creating what is essentially a conspiracy theory around the coding of deaths, commentators don’t have to admit that they were wrong three weeks ago. Richard Epstein should be commended for his humility is saying he made the most significant error of his career. Surely a lot of people that spend their lives studying economics had to have examined the incentive structure in this cockamamie argument?
Talk radio and TV show hosts and opinion journalists can pick up a phone and find the truth. It doesn’t benefit them to do so. It is better to intentionally lie to their audience because the audience WANTS their ears tickled. They want to have information that fits their bias. If the person seems “too left” or “too right,” those book sales, ratings, affiliate link clicks or email sign-ups may dry up.
There are enough honest examples of government failure in this pandemic to de-legitimize the role it plays in our lives. We don’t need to lie to them. People are desperate for accurate information that won’t manipulate them. If we are to be the alternative to the mainstream media, we can’t engage in the same behavior as the “enemy of the people.”
