Misinformation about COVID-19 Deaths

We are over six months into the pandemic and if there is one thing folks should understand, it is that there have been a lot of deaths from COVID-19.

Unfortunately, propaganda and misinformation about COVID-19 deaths makes that hard to see for some folks.

Misinformation about COVID-19 Deaths

Fortunately, you can keep from being fooled if you check the data on COVID-19 yourself.

Remember, data doesn’t usually lie.

But it can certainly be manipulated or misrepresented though.

That’s why some folks don’t realize that even if COVID-19 deaths have decreased a bit in the last few weeks, there are still over 1,200 deaths a day in the United States!

What other misinformation might you hear about COVID-19 deaths?

Have you heard that only 6% of COVID-19 deaths are actually caused by COVID-19???

“For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”

Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics

It’s not true.

The CDC was just saying that people who die with COVID-19 often have other comorbid conditions, such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes, etc. But these aren’t just high risk conditions that they had before they got COVID-19.

They include all of the “conditions contributing to deaths where COVID-19 was listed on the death certificate,” including things like respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, and sepsis, etc. It’s the why you died with COVID-19…

Other propaganda and misinformation about COVID-19 deaths include that:

• COVID-19 death rates have been inflated and hospitals are reporting all deaths as COVID-19 related to make more money
• routine use of hydroxychloroquine would reduce COVID-19 deaths
• the United States has one of the lowest rates of COVID-19 deaths in the world
• the CDC used flu and pneumonia deaths to inflate the COVID-19 death count
• in the middle of the pandemic, the CDC reduced the COVID-19 death toll
• the flu is killing more people than COVID-19
• all non-COVID-19 deaths have increased during the pandemic because of lockdowns
• kids aren’t dying from COVID-19
• the strategy in Sweden proves that we could have done much less and had the same number of deaths

Don’t believe any of it (see below – all of the claims have been debunked over and over again) or the folks that are steering you away from the truth – that COVID-19 is a serious, life-threatening disease, especially for those who are high risk.

Just look at Sweden…

“More than 5,500 people have died with Covid-19 in this country of just 10 million. It is one of the highest death rates relative to population size in Europe, and by far the worst among the Nordic nations. Unlike Sweden, the rest all chose to lock down early in the pandemic.”

Did Sweden’s coronavirus strategy succeed or fail?

They did much less and have far more deaths than their neighboring countries.

And remember that the high number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States could have been even higher, in the millions, if we had done less.

Do more. Don’t listen to or share misinformation from folks pushing propaganda about COVID-19.

More on COVID-19 Deaths

• Are One in a Billion Children Dying of COVID-19?
• Are Kids Dying With COVID-19?
• Has SIDS Decreased During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
• Why There is Still So Much COVID-19 Confusion
• Why Do Some People Still Think Hydroxychloroquine Works for COVID-19?
• Who Are the Real COVID-19 Experts?
• Those COVID-19 Death Comparisons
• What to Know About Face Masks and COVID-19
• COVID-19 Mortality Analysis
• COVID-19 Cases and Deaths, By the Numbers
• WHO – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Mythbusters
• CDC – Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics
• Trump’s Missteps on COVID-19 Mortality
• The epic battle against coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories
• Countering the Infodemic
• Is the Coronavirus Death Tally Inflated? Here’s Why Experts Say No
• Trump’s Comparison Of COVID-19 Death Rates In Germany, US Is Wrong
• Trump’s Misleading COVID-19 Comparisons to Other Countries
• Trump Touts Misleading and Flawed Excess Mortality Statistic
• Fact check: CDC did not add flu and pneumonia cases to its COVID-19 death count
• CDC Hasn’t ‘Reduced’ COVID-19 Death Toll
• Social Media Posts Make Baseless Claim on COVID-19 Death Toll
• Fact check: Disease death rates bar chart does not accurately reflect impact of COVID-19
• Fact check: Comparing drug overdoses to COVID-19 deaths
• Flu isn’t the underlying cause of death for more people than Covid-19
• No, the flu hasn’t killed more people than coronavirus
• Don’t trust this comparison of daily coronavirus deaths with other diseases
• Fact-check: Are hospitals reporting all deaths as COVID-19 related?
• Fact check: Trump claims coronavirus deaths are falling
• Widely Shared Facebook Posts Mislead On COVID-19 Mortality Rate
• Fact Check: NO Evidence That Countries Using Hydroxychloroquine Have Far Fewer COVID-19 Deaths
• Non-COVID-19 deaths in the United States during the imposition of sheltering-in-place
• New Insights on Excess Deaths and COVID-19
• Excess mortality and potential undercounting of COVID-19 deaths by demographic group in Ohio
• About 30% of COVID deaths may not be classified as such
• No, Sweden is not faring the same as its locked down neighbors
• Did Sweden’s coronavirus strategy succeed or fail?
• Modelers Suggest Pandemic Lockdowns Saved Millions From Dying Of COVID-19
• No – COVID-19 Is Not Just a “Bad Flu”
• The “only 6%” gambit: The latest viral COVID-19 disinformation

Last Updated on August 31, 2020 by Vincent Iannelli, MD