Illinois residents, we need IDPH to report COVID deaths by day of death. I'll attempt to show you why.

First, here's the graph of the C19 deaths as reported by IDPH. It's basically the graph on their site that shows the number you see reported in the news each day. 1/*

For months, IDPH has shared these daily numbers as provisional, but also giving the impression that deaths occurred the previous day. Yes, there are comments & notes (sometimes) about lag. But the general public thinks the number they hear each day is very recent. Not so. 2/*

Although I'm not able to look at day-of-death data for every Illinois county, I was able to access the numbers for the 6 most-populous counties - which are also among the highest COVID death totals in IL: Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, McHenry, & Lake (=~85% of deaths) 3/*

Here's the day-of-death graph for those six counties. This was tedious to compile, so any data entry errors are mine. The past couple weeks are less complete due to reporting delays, etc. If I had DoD from all 102 counties, I suspect we'd see a smoother distribution. 4/*

Now look at the IL day-of-report graph WITH the 6-county day-of-death graph. Essentially, Illinois has been reporting older deaths (sometimes-months old per the CDC provisional deaths updates for the state) on the same day as newer deaths.

Pritzker, we have a problem. 5/*

In summary, it is LONG past time for IDPH to publicly share the statewide COVID19 data & graph that shows deaths by DATE OF DEATH, versus date of report.

Would a FOIA request get it out there? I can submit one, but the media would have more pull. 6/6