Are COVID deaths coming down? Or were they always higher than they should have been?

* A county in Northern California opted to revise its COVID-19 death totals in July 2021 after refining its data-reporting systems. Upon using the new approach, officials in Santa Clara County reported that deaths dropped 22%. Click here.

* The CDC removed 72,277 COVID deaths (including 416 among children) from its website last week because, it said, it “was mistakenly counting deaths not related to COVID-19.” The CDC had not announced when the change was made. On its website, the agency described the update as the resolution of a “coding logic error.”