Top Republicans are seeking to downplay the heavy toll of the coronavirus, in part by pointing to a conspiracy theory that the number of deaths is much lower.
President Trump, along with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who are both in competitive Senate races, have all pointed in recent days to the widely debunked theory that COVID-19 deaths in the United States total just 10,000 instead of the more than 180,000 recorded by health officials.
The speculative remarks come at a time when about 1,000 people a day are dying from the virus, providing a grim backdrop to the final sprint to Election Day. Trump, meanwhile, has been trying to project an optimistic message, frequently pointing to rapid progress toward a vaccine and saying he thinks the virus is “going away.”
The Trump administration has also increasingly emphasized protecting vulnerable populations like the elderly, rather than putting a focus on a broader strategy of trying to suppress the disease overall.
The discredited theory in question points to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage stating the coronavirus was listed as the sole cause for only 6 percent of deaths from the virus. However, that does not mean the other 94 percent of people did not die from coronavirus. Instead, it means that either another factor directly caused by coronavirus was also listed, like respiratory failure, or that there was an underlying condition like obesity or diabetes that is not necessarily fatal on its own but that heightens the risks from coronavirus.
The 6 percent figure has been seized on, however, to minimize the death toll. Last weekend, Trump retweeted a post from the user Mel Q, who is also a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory, saying only about 9,000 people had “actually” died from coronavirus. Twitter later removed the tweet for violating its rules.
Ernst likewise said Monday that she is “so skeptical” of case and death counts from coronavirus, later adding, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier: “They’re thinking there may be 10,000 or less deaths that were actually singularly COVID-19…I’m just really curious. It would be interesting to know that.”
Marshall, who is a doctor, pointed to the theory based on the 6 percent statistic in a Facebook post Sunday.
“This week the CDC quietly updated its COVID-19 data to reflect the number of deaths from COVID-19 only,” he wrote, adding it was “only 6%,” according to a screenshot posted by KSNT.
Facebook removed the post, with a spokesperson saying it violated “our policies against spreading harmful misinformation about COVID-19 since it misstates CDC data about the deadliness of the disease.”
The prominence of the discredited theory and its embrace among high-level Republicans has dismayed experts.
“It’s completely, to me, mind-boggling that people are using this as fodder for some conspiracy theory,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.
He said experts have long said that underlying conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure are risk factors for having a more severe case of coronavirus, so “that’s not anything surprising” that conditions like that were listed as present in many coronavirus deaths.
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GOP uses debunked theory to downplay coronavirus death toll https://t.co/FnipmbMHI9 pic.twitter.com/MYEajN8X9j
— The Hill (@thehill) September 6, 2020
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