MHO, I believe, if anything we are under reporting deaths.
CDC has strict guidelines on what qualifies as a Covid 19 death. They must have a CDC validated positive test result. This is no longer left up to the medical examiner or the physician. ANY reported Covid reported death is 100% backed up with a positive test. The health depts in each state is responsible for ONLY reporting deaths with a confirmed test.
We DO track the flu, and I DO have a inside source who collects and agitated the data. He went to Lombardy, Italy during the peak, returned to Germany and is now back in the US. His company tracks flu for the WORLD. He noticed increased in negative flu test, verses the high number tested reported from hospitals and physicians, in late Dec.
Nicholas Reich: Biostatistics and Infectious Disease Epidemiology
This man is a world leaders in Flu tracking. Also, on Twitter.
Influenza Surveillance – Epidemiology
This is Virginia Dept of Health Flu tracking for the current year.
Our best tool currently is Health Data, the University Washington, 100% funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and used as the primary source for the WH task force.
You can look at each state's projections here. Under update notes, they are looking at projections they made verse real time deaths, hospitalization. The model DID perform well, what they previously predicted is now shown to be fact.
IHME | COVID-19 Projections
You can look up Virginia in the drop down window.
I spend 45 yrs in HC managements, lots of boots on ground managing disasters >10k people. Decisions are made on models and projections. We do it frequently during hurricane events.
Look at the models, listen to and follow the really smart people like Dr Birx and Dr Facui, these folks are/were on the frontline of HIV, Ebola, and SARS. What they have predicted so far, has come to pass.
I can't provide an answer to the story, the man died of Covid. As always, we hear and read stories that are hard to confirm truth without of a death certificate. The man may have had an undiagnosed case, went to hospital with a heart attack and died and did test possible upon death. Some folks are infected and have mild symptoms. It seems to be, from studies, 5 to7 day after infection a person feels a little bad and takes a drastic decline (nose dive). Its not like other flus where we feel bad, each day getting worse, its more like I feel bad today and I'm in ICU tomorrow!
I'm glad you joined the Virginia thread and hope I have provided information that can help you make the best decisions for yourself and loved ones.
We we are ALL in this together.
***Hope I didn't overload you with data.