The new system will narrow the state’s definition of who died of COVID. Currently, Massachusetts records anyone who died within 60 days of a COVID diagnosis as having died from COVID, unless it is clear the person died from another cause, such as a traumatic accident. Under the new system, recommended by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, COVID deaths will now be those that occur within 30 days of a diagnosis. The council helps establish uniform methods for states to track and record various diseases. This “will also improve our ability to compare our data with data from other jurisdictions and other states,” Brown said. She said most, but not all, states have adopted this new method. ... The state for the first year counted anyone who had been diagnosed with COVID at any time as a COVID death. ... Most of the overcount, she said, occurred between the summer of 2020 and April 2021, before the state adopted an updated system. That updated method used the 60-day window, counting anyone who died within 60 days of a COVID diagnosis as a COVID death, as well as those in which COVID or an equivalent term was listed on their death certificate. ... Barbara Anthony ... said the Baker administration has been less than transparent about COVID death counts. She said the state did not publicly announce it had significantly changed its system for counting total deaths last April, when it switched to the 60-day method. ... “It’s mind boggling, frankly,” said Anthony, who also is a senior fellow in health care policy at the Pioneer Institute. “It’s not a transparent way to run an operation, and it undermines the faith of the public.”
So, the real story is Massachusetts has changed its counting method TWICE to reduce an "overcount" mostly during the UK variant wave when most authorities increasingly look to excess death data and conclude that COVID death counts don't actually capture the true number of COVID deaths.
Massachusetts is completely counter trend.
