IA-SEN: Ernst's COVID-19 speculation could lead public to let guard down, Iowa doctors fear

[RandySF]

UnityPoint Health's top physician said on Thursday, Sept. 3, he fears Iowans might take COVID-19 less seriously after U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst publicly speculated that doctors have exaggerated the disease’s death toll.

Pediatrician Dave Williams, UnityPoint Health’s chief clinical officer, said that if anything, official estimates of the COVID-19 death toll are too low. He pushed back on Ernst's support of speculation that doctors are falsely attributing some deaths to the disease because they receive extra money for treating COVID-19 cases.

Williams represents more than 10,000 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants working in UnityPoint hospitals and clinics. Those health care professionals have been working tirelessly for months to try to protect people from the coronavirus and save them if they contract COVID-19, he said.

"That's what they're all about. This is not about money. This is not about competition among health systems," Williams said in an interview. "We collaborated like we never had before during this pandemic. This is about saving lives."



https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2020/09/03/coronavirus-iowa-doctors-worry-ernst-comments-cdc-covid-deaths-comorbidities/5705679002/

[Celerity]

1. Ernst and her ilk are clear and present dangers

[Frustratedlady]

2. Ernst and Gov. Reynolds need to resign and save Iowa.

Maybe they could go into business together and fail privately, rather than making stupid public decisions and kill off Iowans.

[struggle4progress]

3. "Who you gonna believe? Senator Me? Or some medical professional who actually knows something?"