Rosen says the underlying conditions should not “reduce” COVID-19 deaths

Manitoba chief physician urges us not to underestimate the impact of COVID-19.

As of Tuesday, the number of deaths from this virus in Manitoba has reached 248. Provincial Public Health Chief Dr. Brent Rosen explained that mostly, if someone dies after testing positive for COVID-19, the cause of death will be listed. Like COVID-19.

There are exceptions. For example, if someone dies in a car collision, and COVID-19 is clearly not responsible in any way for that person’s death, a different cause will be listed.

Dr. Rossen notes that some people believe that if a person dies due to underlying conditions, this somehow reduces the effect of the virus, or even reduces the effect of that specific death. However, he says look around, and note how many people are living with some kind of underlying condition. Some individuals have high blood pressure, asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but they do well. Then they contract COVID-19 and are now at increased risk of a serious outcome.

And he stresses, “There is no reason to believe that death from COVID in these situations is being understated somewhat.” “COVID, in many of these cases, caused a serious outcome, death much earlier than the natural history of that condition they were suffering from.”

Dr. Rossen says that when there are underlying medical conditions, this does not reduce the impact of COVID-19, and certainly does not reduce the loss of that person close to their family.