UP Gazette

The number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan are being questioned after the underlying cause of death of a 2-month-old was listed as coronavirus instead of a birth defect, according to media reports.

“This only serves to breed more discontent and mistrust in the numbers than we've had all throughout this process where there are lots of rumors about whether or not numbers are being recorded accurately,” Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) told UP Gazette. “This simply demonstrates those fears to people who've been expressing that concern all along.”

As previously reported in Detroit News, the Milwaukee County medical examiner listed the infant's immediate cause of death as gastroschisis. COVID-19 was as another condition on the death certificate. While the infant was considered a confirmed fatality of the coronavirus, his mother, Brooke Granquist, reportedly posted on Facebook that she was angry that COVID-19 was included on the death certificate.

“I am angry. I am so angry, the Detroit News noted. "If you heard the state of Michigan report on COVID this morning, you may have heard a 2-month-old baby died of COVID. I need everyone to know that [my child] did NOT die of COVID."

The dashboard for the state of Michigan shows 138,014 confirmed cases and 7,083 fatalities as of Sept. 30, but the Centers for Disease Control reported data that shows 94% of fatalities from coronavirus nationwide actually had underlying health problems and causes that contributed. Only 6% had the coronavirus as the single cause.

“There's a lot of dependence from the state on what's reported at the county levels and there continues to be a lot of confusion as to how to account for this, as far as, whether places believe that they're going to get somehow more funding or more assistance by inflating those numbers. Therefore, they attribute COVID as a cause of death when it's present even if it wasn't really the underlying cause or whatever the circumstances are,” McBroom told the UP Gazette. “I don't think we were really prepared to properly count deaths in this sort of way as it's now become obvious to us. Certainly, it’s a sign that they need to be worked on when this is all over and tempers and emotions settle back down, and we can think clearly about how to fix that problem.” 

Regarding Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's actions counting coronavirus cases, McBroom said, "It's not so much that I need her to do something specific. It's more that all who are policymakers here in Lansing need to sit down and find a way to set aside whatever emotion or agenda is driving us and just come up with a straightforward way to count these issues, and it really shouldn't be political or emotional to figure out how to count deaths.”