Dr. Peterson says CDC has ‘no excuse’ for failing to identify deaths WITH COVID from deaths FROM COVID

On Sunday, Walensky said that she could not differentiate between the two categories, which are lumped together in the US's death total of 836,000.

"There is absolutely no excuse for this," tweeted Peterson on Monday.

Walensky was asked by Bret Baier of Fox News to make the distinction, asking: “Do you know how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to COVID are from COVID or how many are with COVID but they had other comorbidities? Do you have that breakdown?"

She replied: "Yes, of course with Omicron we’re following that very carefully," Walensky replied, but gave no indication that those numbers were available for the totals prior to the recent Omicron-driven surge in infections.

"Our death registry, of course, takes a few weeks to, and is a, takes a few weeks to collect, and of course, Omicron has just been with us for a few weeks, but those data will be forthcoming."

The distinction has come to the forefront in recent weeks, especially after last week's admission by Dr. Anthony Fauci that officials may be counting incidental visits to hospital with COVID as COVID cases in children.

"If you look at the children who are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID," Fauci admitted.

"And what we mean by that — if a child goes in the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID. And they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual. When in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that. So it’s over-counting the number of children who are, quote, 'hospitalized with COVID,' as opposed to because of COVID."

Walensky did say on Good Morning America that "over 75 percent" of the COVID fatalities were among those with at least four comorbid conditions.

The CDC head has since been accused of not communicating data and messaging clearly, leading to reports that she has undergone more "media training" to prove her "commitment" to improve communication.