TRENTON, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy has just introduced a brand new level of science to the COVID-19 pandemic, “probable deaths”. Murphy acknowledged last week that he has had teams of researchers scouring death certificates filed since the COVID-19 pandemic to determine possible COVID-19 cases. Without scientific data, the team has made a scientific conclusion that an estimated, probable 1,854 people might have died of probably COVID-19, maybe since the pandemic began…but there’s no scientific data behind that…because…this is all driven by science.
“Today, we’re reporting an additional 26 deaths among #COVID19 confirmed-positive residents. That total is now 13,018,” Murphy said. “For the first time, we’re reporting 1,854 probable COVID-19 deaths since this emergency began. With these numbers, the total currently known loss from COVID-19 among our residents is 14,872.”
Murphy said Dr. Lifshitz and his team at the Communicable Disease Service have been taking great care in examining thousands of death certificates to identify residents whose passing could, with great reliability, be attributed to COVID-19.
“We know that there are those upon whom a COVID-19 test was never performed, even though the underlying symptoms and causes of death point to the probability that they did, in fact, have COVID-19,” he added. “Given our current testing protocols and decreasing number of deaths overall, we do not anticipate this number growing significantly in the future.”
Regardless, Murphy will use those figures to pad the overall COVID-19 death toll for New Jersey.
“However, some changes are to be expected, and we will be reporting on the number of probable deaths every week. On our dashboard and other documents, we will report these numbers separately, but they represent the toll this pandemic has had on our New Jersey family,” he added. “We’re not the only state which has been grappling with how best to draw a complete picture of COVID-19’s impacts. In one day, we are significantly adding to the already weighty toll this pandemic has had on our state, and on so many families. We report this out of nothing else than a solemn sense of duty.”
