Is There Any Justification for Politicizing the Cause of Death? Measles and Beyond

[PhillyGuy]

@Jackmannii

. . . compounded by having coroners who are untrained in forensic pathology.

There are only 850 board certified forensic pathologists in the U.S., and I find plausible web opinion saying we have a shortage of forensic pathologists. Giving them a big new responsibility now the job of several thousand coroners is impractical.

As for giving the coroners determination of death training beyond the medical or nursing degree most of them now have, the Lancaster County elected Republican coroner who questioned measles as a cause of death, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, does have, according to his web page, a certification from the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators. This is not like board certification in a medical specialty, but from what I gather he did have to pass a multiple choice exam with 240 questions.

@BigT

And making it an appointment instead of an election makes me think that whichever party is in charge will just pick one of their own.

If a political appointee, yes.

But if hiring and retention has civil service protections, or if the responsibility is given to a local non-profit hospital, probably not.

P.S. I have to admit that the elected coroner may not be as extreme a Republican as I thought, because yesterday he backed down somewhat, per this article by by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine expert Paul Offit:

On August 28, in response to several days of reporters trying to get a straight story from the coroner, Dr. Diamontoni, issued another statement. Now, he no longer said that “measles was not the cause of death”; but rather was a “contributing factor.” Dr. Diamontoni further explained that measles was listed under Part II of the infant’s death certificate, which reports “other conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause.”