by Ethan Yang
The American Institute for Economic Research
On November 13, 2020, Johns Hopkins University Advanced Academic Programs posted a YouTube lecture conducted by Dr. Genevieve Briand, JHU’s MS in Applied Economics Assistant Program Director. The talk was titled Covid-19 Deaths: A Look at US Data and a full summary produced by AIER can be found here.
The general idea of the lecture was that Covid-19 deaths as reported by the CDC may be misleading due to a number of accounting aberrations in the data. One of the most notable discrepancies Briand points out is the reclassification of death by other diseases, such as heart disease, as Covid-19 deaths simply because at the time of death the individuals also had Covid. She also makes claims suggesting that overall deaths in 2020 have not substantially increased from past years. Although I am sympathetic to the research, this article should not be construed to be an explicit endorsement of the findings.