Twitter.com removed a viral post retweeted by President Donald Trump over the weekend that showed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) dramatically revised the Covid-19 death toll to just over 9,000 cases.
In a weekly update on its website on Aug. 26, the Atlanta-based agency noted only 6% of Covid-19 deaths were due to Covid-19 alone. 94% of deaths had underlying medical conditions. The majority of the deaths were people over age 65.
Under Table 3: “Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)”, the CDC lists conditions contributing to Covid-19 deaths in death certificates.
Of the deaths related to Covid-19, only 6% listed Covid-19 alone. 94% had other causes of death, such as cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, gunshot wounds or car accidents.
All of the cases were counted as Covid-19-related deaths bringing the death toll in the U.S. to over 180,000. If only Covid-19 was listed on the death certificates, the death toll would be just over 9,000 — far less than deaths caused by the common flu.
President Trump retweeted the viral post that trended under the hashtag #only6%.
Anyone who clicked the link saw the message: “This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules.”
Twitter decided the post violated its rules because it didn’t fully explain: “For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”
Twitter was annoyed that users would see the viral post and assume that only 6% of those who died from Covid-19 didn’t have any preexisting conditions — even though that is basically what the CDC stated based on the death certificates.
The death toll from Covid-19 has plunged to record lows, particularly in the East. For example, Maine and New York City counted no new Covid-19 deaths in the past two weeks.
The CDC recommends hand washing and social distancing to prevent spread of the flu-like coronavirus.
