The “just 6%” takes flooding this site are dumb. MASTER TREAD 🧵
CDC didn’t change anything.
No change to CDC # of deaths.
In fact, 187,000 dead underestimates #.
Over 200,000 excess deaths occurred.
People with comorbities still died of COVID.
Most Americans have conditions.
CDC didn’t change anything.
No change to CDC # of deaths.
In fact, 187,000 dead underestimates #.
Over 200,000 excess deaths occurred.
People with comorbities still died of COVID.
Most Americans have conditions.
1. The claim that the CDC “quietly updated” its reporting to “admit” that “only 6% … actually died from Covid” is top-to-bottom nonsense originating from QAnon theorist, which has spread to lots of people. forbes.com/sites/brucelee… 
2. In the first place, the comorbities have been listed on the CDC’s weekly coronavirus page since May 11 (archive link), and were available elsewhere even earlier. There has been no change to the prose, just more data added (said 7% in May). web.archive.org/web/2020051112…
3. Does this mean only 6% died from coronavirus, and everyone else would have died anyway? No! As explained on the same CDC page under “excess deaths.” Many more people have died than normal. In fact excess deaths exceed official COVID deaths. cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr…
4. Some theorists assert that *lockdowns* are actually causing the excess deaths, not COVID. Wildly false. We can tell because states with few COVID deaths (like HI, ME, VT) don’t have excess deaths even though they’ve been quite locked down. See also:
5. But don’t the comorbities mean they were going to die soon anyway? No. Few people spreading this nonsense seems to have actually looked at table 3 on the CDC site, click to expand. cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr…
6. By far the most common comorbidities are pneumonia and respiratory failure—these are obviously just symptoms of COVID deaths. They’re listed because death certificates list them, but doesn’t mean you can avoid COVID by avoiding respiratory failure; that's backwards.
7. A good thread on cause of death reporting. TLDR: many of the other contributing causes are also just *symptoms* of COVID. In fact COVID is listed as the primary underlying cause of death in 92% of the death certificates.
8. Other items listed include diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. These are not acutely fatal conditions! In fact, most Americans have comorbidities like these. “No big deal, only most people are affected,” said no one ever.
9. Well, doesn’t the CDC admit most the people were old? Sure, but more people That doesn’t mean years or even decades of life haven’t been lost (and we know they’re being lost because of the excess deaths).
10. Another good thread on this topic. Feel free to DM me additional links I can add to this thread.
10. Another short thread by a virologist. Many of the contributing conditions (like hypertension) become acutely lethal *because of the coronavirus.* They're still COVID deaths.
11. Article by @BethSkw explaining that COVID is *the* cause of death on 95% of the death certificates tallied by CDC. vitals.lifehacker.com/no-covid-death…
