On May 14, 2024, a rumor went viral on X, claiming that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had falsified 99% of reported COVID-19 deaths. At the time of writing, it had garnered over 107,500 views, 2,900 comments, and 5,400 reactions.
The post connected to an article from a newspaper called Slay News with the headline “CDC Falsified 99% of Reported ‘Covid Deaths,’ According to Data” from August 2023. Said:
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a statement of intent and prevention. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has just quietly released new insights showing that a staggering 99% of reported “Covid deaths” were not caused by the virus.
Recent data from the CDC shows a disturbing statistic that it appears that most deaths recorded and attributed to Covid were caused by something else.
According to the CDC’s Covid dashboard, 1. 7% of the 324 “Covid deaths” recorded in the week ending August 19 had coronavirus as the leading cause of death.
Alarmingly, the vast majority of so-called “Covid deaths” died from other causes, such as cancer and core diseases.
“According to the CDC’s own data, 99 of the ‘Covid deaths’ were fake,” the article said.
In short, because the viral rumor misrepresents the CDC’s knowledge of COVID-19 deaths, we have classified this claim as “false. “
According to the CDC website, during the week ending August 19, 2023, COVID-19 accounted for 1. 6% of all deaths in the United States. However, this does not mean that 99% of reported COVID-19 deaths were not related to the virus. , as this number reflects COVID-19 deaths as a percentage of all-cause deaths.
The same claim was debunked via AP News and PolitiFact in 2023. AP reported that in August 2023, the rumor spread through online posts featuring a Daily Mail article as evidence, which was later updated to reflect what the numbers showed:
A correction added to the Daily Mail article notes that “an earlier edition of this article claimed that 99 per cent of Covid deaths in the last week were not primarily caused by the virus”. It then describes how the actual data was calculated and indicates that the article has been modified to reflect this. The article’s headline was also updated to read: “Covid is to blame for only 1% of weekly all-cause deaths in the U. S. “U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is known to the CDC. “
CDC spokesman Scott Pauley told The Associated Press that the Daily Mail article, as it should now stand, reflects the agency’s knowledge and that the CDC has been in contact with the publication about it.
This is the first time we’ve investigated a rumor similar to the CDC’s. In September 2023, we debunked a claim that the CDC claimed that Americans who received the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were at higher risk of infection with new variants of the virus than those who were unvaccinated. In April 2020, we investigated whether CDC guidance related to COVID-19 registration on death certificate in the absence of testing resulted in an overcount of cases.
The CDC falsified 99% of reported “Covid deaths,” knowledge showed. Slay News, August 30, 2023, https://slaynews. com/news/cdc-faked-99-reported-covid-deaths-knowledge-shows/.
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION. COVID Data Tracker”. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 28, 2020, https://covid. cdc. gov/covid-data-tracker.
“CDC knowledge shows that 99% of COVID-19 deaths were due to other causes. “AP News, August 30, 2023, https://apnews. com/article/fact-check-covid-deaths-99-percent- cdc-knowledge-828332813362.
O’Rourke, Ciara. ” Misinterpretation of knowledge about COVID-19 leads to misinformation. ” @politifact, https://www. politifact. com/factchecks/2023/oct/05/viral-image/misinterpretation-of-cdc-covid -19-knowledge-leads-to-mi/. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
Palma, Bethany. Is CDC reporting COVID-19 deaths inflating numbers? Snopes, April 20, 2020, https://www. snopes. com//fact-check/cdc–covid19/.
Wrona, Alexandre. Does the CDC say vaccinated Americans are at higher risk of infection than the unvaccinated?Snopes, September 5, 2023, https://www. snopes. com//fact-check/cdc-threat-assessment-summary-covid-vaccine/.
Aleksandra Wrona is a journalist for Snopes, in the Warsaw region.