Witness Testimony

Michael Vogiatzakis testified that during the early months of COVID he and his staff experienced intense fear due to messaging that bodies were highly infectious. He described an incident in a personal care home where a terminal cancer patient’s death certificate initially listed COVID as the cause of death. After questioning staff, he stated the certificate was amended to cancer. He testified that this event eliminated his fear of occupational exposure and led him to question official reporting. He further described families being barred from visiting dying relatives and recounted emotionally distressing scenes of residents pleading not to be left alone.
He testified that funeral regulations severely restricted services, including limits on attendance that prevented sufficient pallbearers from carrying caskets and recommendations favoring cremation without viewings. He stated his funeral home continued allowing viewings and embalming, reporting that staff did not become ill. He described financial losses due to service limitations and said the overall death rate did not exceed previous years, though he alleged suicides and drug overdoses increased significantly. He recounted prolonged six- to eight-week autopsy holds for overdose and suicide cases, which he said compounded family grief.
Vogiatzakis also testified that embalmers began observing unusual blood clotting patterns different from typical post-mortem clots. He indicated that his primary mortician could provide more detailed observations and suggested these findings warranted further investigation. He concluded that prolonged isolation in care homes, restrictions on end-of-life visitation, and societal division over vaccination caused profound psychological harm to families and seniors.