Health Commissioner Crum: High state Covid case counts have not been ‘reflective of current situation’

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A note from Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum corrects misinformation that is floating around Alaska.

He says that hospitals and the State of Alaska do not get extra money for Covid patients or for logging a death as a Covid death. Death certificates are signed by the attending physician, and the State has nothing to do with the cause of death and is not getting federal money based on a death.

But he also acknowledges that the state has been playing catch-up with the posting of actual case counts, and it has made it look like there is a terrible outbreak of Covid.

“We were posting high numbers, but they weren’t reflective of current situation, in order to be date transparent I pushed the team to work through the backlog, that showed many days of high cases, but as we’ve said for 18 months, report date doesn’t mean a thing and is a useless data point. Onset date is what matters,” Crum said in his note, leaked to Must Read Alaska by a health worker. “And that shows that our epi curve is flattening … that’s useful information.

“These numbers are even lower than numbers that were posted even 2 weeks ago,” he said. “And 44 people didn’t die from COVID in one day. No one ever claimed that. Not even the media,” Crum wrote.

Those seeking to politicize Covid-19 have been pushing the narrative in the mainstream media that Alaska is suffering from the worst outbreak in the nation. According to Crum, that’s just not born by the data. National news outlets and local news outlets have reported the soaring numbers in recent days as evidence that Alaska is in crisis.

The difficulty for local leaders is that it’s not clear what the actual current case numbers are, and they are making policy decisions that impact people dramatically based on that flawed information.

According to the State’s data dashboard, the hospitalizations for Covid-19 were slightly down in September, compared to August in Alaska.

In August, 336 people were hospitalized in Alaska with Covid-19. In September, that number eased off to 325, (possibly because September has one fewer day than August.) As of Oct. 4, just five people are reported to be newly hospitalized in Alaska with Covid-19. [This is not intended to be read as five people are all that are hospitalized for Covid in Alaska].

Read: Cases drop dramatically in Alaska as Anchorage Assembly prepares a mask law

73 COMMENTS

  1. They may not get money up front but when they file their tax returns they are allowed that 306k deduction for each covid patient.

    • Fact-checking reports this as HALF-TRUTH.
      It’s standard Medicare policy to pay a hospital three times as much for a patient who goes on a ventilator, as for one who does not.
      As a result of a federal stimulus law, Medicare is paying a 20% add-on to its regular hospital payments for treating COVID-19 victims.

      • I wouldn’t use the term “fact-checking reports”. Fact checkers are nothing but cherry picked facts to help support liberal points of views, at best. Sometimes they are just bold face lies. Even if you don’t believe that to be true, we do because we have seen them be incredibly bias time and time again and you won’t be successful at persuading any conservative by saying “fact check false” or “that has been debunked”. Most of those organizations that call themselves “fact checkers” are funded either directly or indirectly by Democrat organizations, or they are an arm of a liberal media organisation. However, you are right that hospitals are getting higher reimbursements for covid patients. And you should know that the bean counters in healthcare ALWAYS try to code for the maximum payout and they even change medical policies and procedures to get more reimbursement, so much so that they all have been regulated to stop early discharging patients so they can get paid three times as much when the patient is readmitted, a practice that almost became ubiquitous before it was stopped. They aren’t so saintly and most definitely are motivated by money and it is definitely true that hospitals have been caught coding cause of death as covid when it isn’t even remotely true.
        ***
        We might be on the same page on all of this. Sorry if I’m using too much of an argumentative tone. My main point is that I wouldn’t use the term “fact-checking reports” with a conservative. Those sources fall flat for a conservative because truly, they are liberal spin on facts, at best. Most consider them flat out manipulative
        confirmation bias propaganda, as do I.

  2. Will the far left Members on the assembly listen ?? and stop their assult on the citizens of Anchorage…!!!

  3. How many of those “ hospitalizations” are people that go to the ER or urgent care and are released to go home after examination?
    Never do these statistics give the true and complete picture.

    Exactly like in stores, when produce says “ fresh picked” – they never say when – they don’t tell you the produce was picked last year- sprayed with a chemical to keep them from rotting and kept cold until they need it.
    The devil is in the details.

  4. Adam Crum speaking about Covid not being as bad as it sounds is like President Biden saying the Afgan withdrawal was a total success. Sleepy Joe and Crum speak with the same forked tongue.

    • COVID is NOT as bad as it sounds, Herb. When will you hysterical, irrational, authoritarian, hair-on-fire Branch Covidian cultists realize that? Probably never, unfortunately.

  5. Suzanne, I appreciate your articles on Covid. But the dashboard shows 216 in the hospital who have tested positive for Covid not 5. Not sure where you got that number?

      • You may have some trouble squaring that statement with this one from DHSS: “Monday afternoon, DHSS reported 49 new cases in Juneau that were identified between Oct. 2 and 4”
        That is from article in Juneau Empire this AM.

      • At the end of this article, it says “As of Oct. 4th, just five people are reported to be hospitalized in Alaska with Covid-19.” This is misleading and needs to be worded better if you are talking about “since Oct 1st.” People actually believe the first statement and are repeating it at assembly meetings.

  6. The crisis narrative continues to collapse. If the assembly continues on the path of medical subjugation, then I dare say this is an act of war against the people. Their hand has been revealed.

  7. Annnnnd we wonder why people are always skeptical of the news………….better just turn off the news and live your life.

  8. “Cases”
    .
    In EVERY past pandemic, reported cases were of those who were actually symptomatic and clearly suffering from the disease in question. But not in this one! Which is just part of the statistical shenanigans and misrepresentations surrounding this very mild pandemic.

    • « Mild » pandemic that has killed over 700,000 Americans.
      This number surpasses the number of servicemen killed during the Vietnam War and most people would say this was terrible in terms of loss of life.
      At what point would you modify the adjective you have used to describe the current situation??

      • Catherine, you fail again in your appeal to emotion over reason.
        .
        Firstly, your number of supposed deaths, thrown out there without ANY historical, statistical or medical context or perspective, means utterly nothing. Secondly, this pandemic did NOT kill 700,000 Americans, as even the CDC admits that only 6% of those (overcounted) 700,000 died directly from COVID, rather than merely WITH COVID. Thirdly, even the resulting 42,000 deaths is probably an overcount, as those COVID determinations were made using the PCR method, which is inherently flawed and biased towards false positives, based on how many cycles the method used. Even its own inventor strenuously argued for years that PCR is NOT valid as a diagnostic test.
        .
        In short, this very mild COVID pandemic falls right in line with the stronger influenza pandemics that we have generally experienced every decade or two, such as the Asian Flu of the 1950s, or the Hong Kong Flu of the late 1960s. And notably, we were not shutting down society, and being forced to restructure our very society and eliminate fundamental rights, as a result of those past pandemics.
        .
        This entire COVID-19 “emergency” and “crisis” is entirely a creation, a purposeful creation, of the political, media and medical establishments, who have used it masterfully to further accrue power and profits into their own hands.

        • Wells said. Thanks for the well stated reply. I would not have been so informative and calm. The true crisis here is how misinformed so many people are, which is ironic as the information is out there. Far too many people think they are being informed by the MSM news, when they are being manipulate, land lied to. It seems like people are Brain washed.

          • Thanks, Steve. But it is not just that many people SEEM to be brainwashed, they clearly are and have been brainwashed.
            .
            I have been profoundly disheartened and depressed by the overall public response to the outrages inflicted on us using this mild pandemic as a rationalization for their power grabs and “Great Reset” agenda. A good 50% of our population are apparently mindless sheep who only wish to be led and controlled, with NO independent judgement of their own, nor any measure of critical thinking ability whatsoever.

          • You guys should look up Dr. Mattias Desmet, Professor of Psychology University of Ghent. He talks about “mass-formation” which is something that happens in societies when many have deep seated discomfort and pain that comes from something beyond people’s comprehension. As soon as something comes along that allows everyone to come together to create a bond and sense of community, they use that thing to blame all of their discomfort on and it gives them a sense of purpose and fulfillment that they were missing before. It explains a lot of things happening for people on the left for me, long before Covid. Covid was just putting gasoline on a fire that was already raging. We all can see that, but it is nice to hear someone that has studied in depth how this has happened in the past and how people can get out of their mass hypnosis. One way is just by showing our numbers as much as we can before the 30% that want to control everyone are successful at silencing opposition. There is a good 40% probably that are just going with whatever and many them would happily switch over to the 30% that are opposing the hypnosis if they know it won’t make them stand out.

          • Speaking of brainwashed, what do you think about people who repeatedly deny words have meanings and simply make up whatever they want to support their worldview as an alternative definition? Sounds like by changing the meaning of words to convince people of something that might be brainwashing, no?

      • Look at the bright side through your hysteria; COVID-19 has miraculously all but eliminated seasonal influenza, respiratory infections, and pneumonia as causes of death.

      • Catherine, your comment shows your disdain for the sacrifices our service members have made, as you attempt to use them as a punch-line. Comparing war deaths with disease deaths is a flawed comparison. Do you apply the same logic to cardio vascular deaths that average 650,000 each year (in 2017 per the American Heart association it was over 860,000)? Comparing Covid and cardio deaths would be much more apt considering that cardio deaths are counted per year while your 700,000 is now the accumulation of 19 months. As for “mild” the CDC records that there are 0.213 deaths per capita for Covid. Perspective is everything!

        • Cherry-picking statistics seems to be an underlying theme during this entire “pandemic”. Approximately 2 million seniors (over the age of 65 die each year – from multiple causes. Nearly 70% of reported covid cases are in persons over 65. So, an elderly person dies “with” covid, it gets registered as a “covid death”. It’s called “comorbidity”.

  9. How about stop using the PCR tests that don’t tell you what it is seeing at a high rate of cycles. The problem is the faulty tests.

  10. CYA Crum. I don’t blame him. No one likes being blamed for death. And that’s why we should stop doing that unless there is real reasons to believe willful intent or serious recklessness, like putting covid patients in nursing homes or prescribing ubiquitously remdesivir that was shown to be pretty useless and harmful in, especially when compared to regeneron, during 2019 ebola trials and without ever mentioning that it can cause renal failure which causes pneumonia that is easily confused with covid symptoms.
    **
    However Crum is being misleading about hospitals receiving more money for covid deaths. “Hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots to receive $10 billion more in federal aid” – www. hfma. org/topics/news/2020/07/the-new-round-will-pay–50-000-per-covid-19-admission–compared-.html
    **
    Plus Dunleavy just bailed them out recently with our tax dollars
    ***
    If you want to look up what Fauci knew before 2020 about remdesivir, this is direct from the NIH’s website: www. nih. gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/two-drugs-reduce-risk-death-ebola
    **
    “Overall, about 50% of people who received either Zmapp or remdesivir died during the trial. In contrast, only about 35% of people who received either Mab114 or REGN-EB3 [Regeneron] died. Three participants died of side effects thought to be related to treatment—two in the ZMapp group and one in the remdesivir group.” They even stopped using remdesivir before the trial was over because it was dangerous and not helping, while regeneron was very effective. Why did the US government wait on regeneron until Jan. 2021? Hmmm… I wonder.
    ***
    And Fauci was very aware of the study because he’s quoted: “Although effective treatments alone will not end this outbreak, the PALM study findings identify the first efficacious treatments for Ebola virus disease and therefore mark a significant step forward in improving care for Ebola patients,” says NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci. – 2019
    ***
    Crum is a guy just trying his best, but doesn’t really have any courage. Dr. Fauci is indeed Dr. Death, and like I said at the beginning, I don’t like accusing people of that, but the truth is just too apparent.

    • I don’t know about dismissing Mr Crum. If he did push the staff to pollute the daily cases with old numbers and then when the media ran with the inflated numbers to scare Anchorage he kept quiet. That’s irresponsible and perhaps he should resign. Would we have ever learned about this if they had not had to explain about 40 some deaths in a single day and one epidemiologist let it slip that “most” of the cases were in fact from the date reported.

      • Ya I hear ya. I guess I’m just cutting him some slack because he feels like he’s getting blamed for killing people and that level of blaming should be stopped unless…

        But I’m 100% with you. He created this painting of Alaska himself. If he is not to blame for inflating numbers, who is? It’s part of his job to make sure the data is accurate and not misleading. And ya, you are right. I haven’t been paying attention to Crum enough. He should resign because polluting the numbers to coerce Anchorage is part of the blame game that is causing people to make irrational decisions.

  11. The Chinese Virus Panic is a HOAX. I got the vaccine and encourage everyone to get it, but the virus is NOT a big deal anymore. If you are panicked about “cases” please go and get a booster shot, which makes it basically impossible to catch the Chinese Virus. If you aren’t panicked, just go about NORMAL LIFE!

    • Shall we stop using such a derogatory term that has had life-threatening consequences for Asian-Americans??

      COVID-19, Delta variant are medically-accepted terms that avoid racist terminology.

      Please stop the hate.

      • No, Catherine, you can take your imaginary ‘racism’ and your intolerant and irrational wokeist linguistic Stalinism and shove it.
        .
        The proper name for the virus causing the current (very mild) pandemic is the Wuhan Virus.

      • Catherine, do you really think “Covid-19” is going to to stop the Asian hate, wherever it is? You are really barking up the wrong tree and spinning your wheels and taking part in more divisive rhetoric that is totally useless except for stirring the pot.

        • Not “Asian”, Justin, but “Oriental”.
          .
          The continent of Asia, by far the largest on earth, is highly diverse, and includes MANY more people than just Orientals. Every time I hear or read someone misuse the word “Asian” to mean “Oriental”, I cringe inside, as it only showcases the profound geographical ignorance of most Americans.

          • Point taken. I’ll probably still use Asian because it’s not really inaccurate. It’s just not very specific. You are right. But I have an “Asian” friend that likes Asian better, not that he finds Oriental as offensive as the n word (he laughs at that concept), he just prefers Asian because it doesn’t sound like I’m from the 1950’s. I do find it funny when someone gets all offended about Oriental and then you point to the nail salon or the package of raman made by Orientals that says “Oriental”. Do you see any n word barber shops? haha I appreciate the push back because it wasn’t offensive until liberals made it offensive. I hear ya 100%. Maybe I’ll strike up a conversation about it next time I’m hanging out with my “Asian” friend and see if I can’t move the needle back a little bit. I have a feeling that he doesn’t really care, but doesn’t want to be called Oriental in public because of how it is perceived now. We sort of lost that battle already, I’m afraid. Good news, after all of this settles down and the truth is revealed, I have a feeling conservatives will have much more influence than before.

      • Oh Catherine! Give it a rest! The facts are:
        The virus came from China. It emerged in the Wuhan region.
        Projecting your hate to appear virtuously protecting the perceived victims of your projection, is getting really old and transparent.

    • Perhaps it should read something along the lines of, there have only been five new covid 19 hospitalizations reported in the month of October?

      • Thanks for the clarification, it should probably be updated in the article so as not to spread further confusion to an already overly confused situation.
        .
        Five new hospitalizations in four days, seems like we might be on the other side of this peak the way the lower 48 has been for a couple weeks.

        • “Monday afternoon, DHSS reported 49 new cases in Juneau that were identified between Oct. 2 and 4 ”
          Here you can see how impossible those dashboard numbers are. Pretty difficult to get 5 new cases for the State when Juneau has 49. Heheh!

  12. And now confirm what all my medical field friends are saying….”The vaccinated are the majority of hospitalized Covid patients.”
    ****
    (emphasis on *hospitalized because of Covid*, ….not “checked in for a foot surgery or physical with positive PCR test”)

  13. Why don’t you just post the actual numbers as opposed to some editorialized spin? 2290 new cases over the weekend according to state data. This remain the highest in the country. This isn’t hard. You can do better.

    • Semantics matter Brian. 2290 “cases” according to you over the weekend means that there were 2290 positive tests, nothing more. A positive test a case does not make… you really need symptoms for that. If you only have 5 more people out of all those “cases” that actually require hospital care, a completely new picture emerges. Scaring people with meaningless numbers has been the hallmark of this entire episode.

  14. 5 in the hospital, OKAY time to take two steps back and see that the data reporting needs to change as in it is being used as a scare tactic. Why is the city and state redistricting committee restricting or requiring masks for their meetings in the Deniana Center. Map v.4 is the only one that has concise lines and understandable borders. I went and looked at the maps but had to leave before the meeting started. There were folks there talking about COVID and how the mask mandates were needed. Something about the Wasilla Mayor now knows how bad Covid can be. I sat their without a mask and got a call finished my testimony got up and left the leftist to themselves.

  15. Soldotna CPH is counting all monoclonal antibody patients as ‘admitted’ Covid patients. CPH is the only place on the Peninsula offering them. So if you get the 20 minute IV procedure done, because you are 65+ or have additional health issues, they are counting you as a ‘Covid’ patient.
    We talked to a friend who works there. She told us not to believe the hype. They are falsely inflating numbers.

  16. Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is being dubbed the “ghost hospital,” or “Ph(F)anthom Memorial Hospital.” No one is there. No covid patients. Few hospital workers. Halls and beds are reportedly near empty. President of the Hospital Foundation, Jeff Cook, has been spinning so many contradictory stories about the state of COVID at FMH, that few believe him anymore. He needs to be relieved.

  17. Read about employer tax credits from COVID by the IRS here:

    https://www. irs. gov/newsroom/covid-19-related-tax-credits-basic-faqs

    Looks like only employers with FEWER than 500 employees are eligible to take these type of COVID credits.

    Eligible Employers that are entitled to claim the refundable tax credits are businesses and tax-exempt organizations that: (1) have fewer than 500 employees, and (2) pay “qualified sick leave wages” and/or “qualified family leave wages” under the EPSLA and/or the Expanded FMLA, respectively.

  18. Go to UncoverDC website and read this article: DoD Data Analysis Reveals Accelerated ADE In Vaccinated
    .
    From the article…
    .
    Following the release of the Humetrix data, experts echoed what the information conveys, affirming:
    “These data, presented here, shatter the official Biden / Fauci narrative that falsely claims America is experiencing ‘a pandemic of the unvaccinated’. The data show that the pandemic actually appears to be accelerated by COVID-19 vaccines, while unvaccinated individuals are having far better outcomes than the vaccinated.
    Furthermore, according to these data, the single best strategy for avoiding post-vaccine infections and hospitalizations is natural immunity derived from a previous COVID infection.”
    .
    And…
    .
    In Slide 11, the study team recognizes specific waning vaccine immunity, noting that Moderna’s protection outperforms Pfizer’s. In Slide 12, showing data labeled “Total & Breakthrough Cases in the 65 Years and Older Salus Cohort,” the study gives a graph indicating the number of COVID-19 cases over the six months from February 6 to August 21, 2021. As Delta cases increase, the study data reveals that by August, 71% of all COVID-19 cases were in vaccinated individuals.

    • Good find PJ!
      .
      But as usual, I suspect that ANY data from unbiased and/or independent sources, and not from the corporate media and political establishment, will simply be automatically dismissed by the center-thinkers, boot lickers and herd followers who blindly believe in the corrupt power structure and every pronouncement from it.

      • Thanks Jefferson…there are so many articles like this showing up now with findings contrary to the official narrative that it’s puzzling that people aren’t waking up to the undeniable fact that something is very, very wrong here.
        The “vaccinated” are committed and dug in, though, because they don’t want the truth…the truth is that they’ve done something to themselves that cannot be undone.
        The really telling metric I’m waiting for is how many of the jabbed take the next step…the third jab.
        That will tell us how they actually feel more than what they write in these comments.

        • I’m guessing there are 30% of us that aren’t hypnotized and just baffled on what’s going on. 40% that are just going with the flow and just want to enjoy a simple life. And 30% that want to rule over everyone because they don’t understand why we won’t drink the koolaid already. That 40% will deal with only so much and the FDA and Pfizer know they are pushing their luck with the boosters. That’s why there are such mixed messages about the boosters. I believe there is a very good chance that many of the different forces pulling different levers, like Pfizer, know that there is a strong possibility that everything is going to fizzle out by April 2022 and they are just trying their best to sweep up anything that might get them in trouble later.

  19. Maybe Crum can give answers to why Alaskans identities were stolen through his department of H&HS and also explain why he waited so long to tell us
    Who’s getting fired for this? Dunleavy???!!!

  20. Why are we not hearing how many of those positive tests are false positives. We need more accurate numbers, we need someone besides zink to analyze the data and give us facts. The zink dashboard gives inaccurate daily counts.

  21. Research is the best thing to be informed. Most audience on MRAk know if you just listen to what ABC, CBS, K T UU, (MSM), those news groups are not telling you the truth.

    In any search engine type in: NIH then type in Table 2e Characteristics of Antiviral Agents that are Approved or Under Evaluation for Treatment of COVID-19
    (h t t p s:// w w w . c o v i d 1 9 t r e a t m e n. t g u i d e l i n e s . n i h . g o v / t a b l e s / t a b l e – 2e/)
    .
    NIH’s approved drugs to treat ‘COVID’ The table has listed several approved drugs but I’ll list the first 2 listed on the table.
    .
    1) Remdesivir (but guess who approved that to use as treatment & kills those who got the virus? Falsy Fauci) Not only that but were on a ventilator… 53% treated with remdesivir died!
    .
    2nd listed: IVERMECTIN! Get this, now Pfizer has a new drug they say works, but compare that to Ivermectin. It’s appears it is the exact same drug!
    .
    Now those who are dying of COVID…. and have gotten the jab are now being listed as non-vaccinated. An international crime regime for ya! Just so they can push the jab on ya!

    Only 70 years ago about 60 million died in concentration camps but only a million people worked to kill many of Jewish descent… Again, I’m sure most MRAk viewers are familiar with the Nuremberg Trial, thus the Nuremberg Code. See the similarities yet?

    Patriots of Alaska, continue to stand up, continue to push back, continue to pray. After all, our forefathers looked to God to build this great Nation ~ God Bless the United States of America!

    • Please work on your spelling, and don’t purposefully misspell people’s names. It is too hard for me to clean up with over 400 comments a day to go through. Also, no more vulgarities. Thanks – sd

  22. There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics. You can read into the numbers whatever you want to see. The question is, do you want to use thoughts and prayers if you get the rona? I’ll take my chances with the vaccine and masking. No de-wormer or hydroxycloriquin or bleach and ultraviolet light.

    • I was paying attention to you until you said de-wormer and bleach. I see you are going with damn lies.

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