Tuberculosis Isn’t Nearly as Deadly as COVID-19

Layne Radlauer

Health

31st August 2020

Tuberculosis Isn’t Nearly as Deadly as COVID-19

Tuberculosis death rates are much lower than that of COVID-19 (Getty Images).

The Claim

Tuberculosis (TB) has a higher death rate than coronavirus.

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Emerging story

In late August 2020, users on social media misinterpreted data by the CDC and WHO to support the claim that tuberculosis has a higher death rate than COVID-19.

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Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar's investigation found that the claim comes from people misinterpreting data and making conclusions without conducting full research. It is worth pointing out that TB is curable and preventable. Most deaths occur in developing countries without adequate access to healthcare. As a result, fighting the TB epidemic requires a vastly different approach than COVID-19. For this reason, we will be focusing on statistics in the United States.

The first case of COVID-19 in the US was discovered on January 20, 2020. As of August 31, there have been 5,934,824 cases and 182,149 deaths. These numbers will continue to go up for some time.

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In 2018, the U.S. had 9,025 cases of TB, and in 2017 it had 9,088.

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The bacteria that causes TB actually lives in millions of people, but they are usually latent and do not harm the host. This explains the high numbers that some social media users cite. 515 people died from the disease in 2017, the last year the data is available. That is but a very, very small fraction of COVID-19-related deaths.