The claim
In the future, Health Minister Lauterbach wants to include all heart attack deaths following a corona infection in the statistics of corona deaths. This is how he explained it when presenting a new Corona campaign.
Our conclusion
The claim has been widely misinterpreted. Karl Lauterbach does not intend to change the counting method of statistics; Nothing is planned in this regard either. Instead, he pointed out a possible under-recording of corona deaths because long-term corona consequences such as a heart attack are not taken into account in the count. The main intention of the statement is to educate laypeople that the statistics of corona deaths are not overestimated.
A new claim was recently made on the Internet , according to which Karl Lauterbach is said to have announced that in the future all people who die of a heart attack and who have ever had Corona will be included in the statistics. What is true about this thesis?

Lauterbach: Corona deaths underestimated
At the federal press conference on October 14, 2022 , Health Minister Karl Lauterbach stated that the number of deaths due to corona infections was underestimated. This is due, among other things, to the fact that “for a whole year” after the infection, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (including stroke and heart attack) is “significantly increased,” says Lauterbach.
He goes on to say: “But none of these people make it into the statistics. Anyone who has had Corona and dies of a heart attack six months later will never be included in the Corona statistics. But they actually have to be counted because the person would not have died without the infection.”
No change to the criteria planned
It is important to emphasize that Lauterbach does not intend to change the criteria for inclusion in the statistics with his quote. Instead, he would like to clarify that the statistics of corona deaths are not overestimated , as he hears from many laypeople, he mentioned in the 38th minute of the conference.
German press agency (dpa) also mentioned: “There is no change in the criteria.”
The Robert Koch Institute is currently including in its statistics in which there is laboratory-confirmed Corona detection, i.e. a PCR test from the health department, and in which the patient has died due to this infection. This means that the person either demonstrably died from the infection or they were people with previous illnesses “who were infected with Sars-CoV-2 and for whom it cannot be conclusively proven what the cause of death was”.
It is therefore up to the health department whether a certain death is reported to the Robert Koch Institute as a Covid-19 death.
Nevertheless, increased risk of heart attack
Even if the counting method of statistics is not to be changed for the time being, Lauterbach's opinions are consistent with science and everyday life in the clinics . Even if a direct connection has not yet been proven, initial studies clearly indicate that a corona infection leads to an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack within a year. In this case, increased risk means the following: “In the first year after infection, the risk is increased by 50 percent,” explained the medical director of cardiology at the Stuttgart Clinic, Thomas Nordt, to Focus .
Author: Nick L.
Source:
dpa , RKI , American Journal of Cardiology , riffreporter , Focus
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