Republican State Rep. Mary Franson said she has enlisted a team to examine data provided by Minnesota\u2019s health department. Her team allegedly found that COVID-19 was blamed for some deaths clearly not linked to the respiratory disease.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found clear-cut examples from the Minnesota Department of Health\u2019s own files\u2014public records\u2014of suicide, a drowning, an auto accident where the passenger was ejected from the vehicle, we found dementia \u2026 and strokes,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Franson said during an interview with\u00a0Fox News<\/a>, adding that she was \u201cso shocked at what I found that I just could not keep silent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe citizens of our country are being led in fear, and that fear is leading them to make irrational decisions based on the governors with their shutdowns,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we need this audit. We need the truth.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Franson was joined by Republican State Sen. Scott Jensen, a practicing physician. Jensen has become the subject of two state probes earlier this year for arguing that the federal and state guidelines on reporting COVID-19 deaths could\u00a0pressure local authorities to misclassify and inflate their numbers<\/strong>, and that doctors and hospitals are motivated to do so for more health care dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you could hit a threshold of 161 admissions to your hospital with COVID-19 diagnosis between January and June, you received $77,000 of additional money for each one of those admissions\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>through the CARES Act, Jensen told Fox News.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any questions that reverse incentives have been created.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In response to the allegations, the Minnesota Department of Health said the way it classifies COVID-19 deaths is consistent with the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely following the national guidance on how we are doing our death reporting from COVID-19,\u201d Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann\u00a0told Fox News<\/a>. \u201cIf someone had tested positive for COVID and then subsequently died, we would review the death certificate and motor vehicle accident would be the cause of death and so it would not be considered a COVID death.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the state health officials, more than 413,000 Minnesotans have tested positive for the CCP virus since March and 5,262 people have died. The Health Department reported on Wednesday that 38,284 people across the state have received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/minnesota-covid-19-test-700x420.jpg?itok=79RcE8LN\")
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