Posts Regarding a CDC Study About COVID-19 Deaths Are Missing Context

14th January 2022

Posts Regarding a CDC Study About COVID-19 Deaths Are Missing Context

The context was missing from the misleading posts (Twitter).

The Claim

According to Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, people with at least four comorbidities accounted for more than 75% of COVID-19 deaths.

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Emerging story

Social media users have circulated posts claiming the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said that over 75% of all COVID-19 deaths were among people with at least four comorbidities.

BREAKING: CDC Director admits that over 75% of COVID deaths are in people with ‘at least 4 comorbidities.’
— Jenny Beth Martin (@jennybethm) January 10, 2022

The posts refer to a video on ABC’s Good Morning America, claiming it depicts The CDC Director mentioning that most of the COVID-19 deaths were among people with other illnesses.

Now they tell us!!! The @CDCgov director says over 75% of covid deaths were people with “at least four comorbidities” and were “unwell to begin with” #Malone #McCullough @joerogan @carolina_bonita pic.twitter.com/eCcrkbGNz2
— carolina_bonita (@carolina_bonita) January 10, 2022

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar team has investigated the claim and found it misleading. The video the posts cited is a shorter version edited by the channel that posted an updated version of the video on their Youtube channel later.

The original video of the exchange shows the CDC Director referring to deaths among vaccinated people in a specific study she was mentioning.

Our team looked up the study Walensky was referring to and found that the study aimed to demonstrate the vaccine’s effectiveness since it examined 1,228,664 people who had been vaccinated in a determined period and found out that most of the 36 who died had four or more risk factors.

According to the original video, Walensky said that over 75% of deaths among fully vaccinated people had at least four comorbidities and did not say that 75% of all COVID-19 deaths died because of other illnesses.

The CDC Director spoke to the US Senate Hearing about the video and said that the editing helped spread the misleading interpretation of her speech and mentioned that she was talking about a study that confirms the vaccine's effectiveness.