[conspire] Let's look at fluview

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> The particular individual who sent the email thinks Trump is great. 
> So that I why I selected the story that Trump didn't approve of
> Sweden.  That seems to have stopped said person from continuing.  

Yes, point taken.

On NextDoor, someone posted a conspiracy theory that 'doctors are being
encouraged' (by whom?) to record on death certificates all hospital
deaths as caused COVID-19, saying this had been proved by Minnesota
Senator Dr. Johnson.  I politely asked her to provide a solid reference, 
saying this was an extraordinary claim that would require a large amount
of substantiation.  (I also asked by whom were these unnamed doctors
'being encouraged'.)

Her idea of a response was that I ought to Web-search 'Senator Johnson
HHS letter' or something like that.  Notably, she saw no obligation to
substantiate her claim.

So, I dug into the matter, and found a lot of sloppy sensationalist
claims across conspiracist Web sites and blogs, much of whose material
she had obviously copied and pasted, about one MN State Senator Scott
Jensen -- note spelling (who is also a physician).  Third-party accounts
purporting to summarise what Jensen said, claiming he'd received a
7-page letter from HHS instructing him to record deaths as COVID-19
whether that is true or not.  Some Web sites claimed this letter was
from Minnesota Dept. of Heath, others that it was from HHS.

Some further digging found on Scribd a 7-page letter purported to be the
same one Sen. Jensen got, sent by a statistics-oriented subdivision of 
HHS, providing physicians guidance as to how HHS would prefer that they 
record COVID-19 involvement on death certificates, in cases where the
recording physician has reason to record that involvement.  I provided
the link, and noted these facts:

1.  What to record on the certificate of death is strictly a local
matter that is most often delegated to some low-on-the-totem-pole
person.  Physicians have no special obligation or reason to take HHS's
wishes very seriously, although HHS is certainly free to state its opinion.

2. Even if it had any sort of authority, the letter simply didn't tell 
recipients what the conspiracists claimed it did.  I quoted applicable
bits, to prove the point, not to mention suggesting readers could see
for themselves.  It basically expressed an opinion about which specific
_line_ of the form to write COVID-19, where the physician felt there was
reason to mention it.

3. That the next time the original poster was politely asked to provide
a credible reference for an extraordinary claim, she would be better off
not saying 'Hey, just google it.'

4. That I saw no cause to blame Jensen (not 'Johnson') for the
disinformation, having no access to primary source material.  I
suspected the misrepresentation was made by the conspiracy people.

Within a day, the original poster deleted the entire thread, in apparent
pique.