The CDC Did Not Lower the COVID-19 Death Toll

Zach Rathner

Health

4th September 2020

The CDC Did Not Lower the COVID-19 Death Toll

Over the previous weekend “only 6%” began trending on Twitter (Getty Images)

The Claim

The death toll from COVID-19 is significantly lower than previously stated.

News posted on

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Emerging story

In August 2020, the CDC released some new data on the COVID crisis, which was widely interpreted on social media as admitting that 94% of COVID deaths were deaths from other diseases besides COVID. These claims subsequently went viral on social media, specifically twitter.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation shows that the claim is false. Over the previous weekend “only 6%” began trending on Twitter that falsely suggested that the CDC had updated its COVID-19 data to show that only 6% of U.S. deaths were related to the disease. The orginal post was shared widely on social media and was based on updated data that showed that 6% of deaths were related to COVID-19 only, rather than with people who also had underlying medical conditions.

The post was taken down by Twitter for violating its rules. Later, in an interview, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that death toll resulting from COVID-19 had not been lowered by the CDC and that certain people on social media were misrepresenting the facts. He confirmed that at this point, the death toll was well over 180,000 in the United States.