Note to mods: I'm sure this has likely been added to 'rona Megathreads already, but this is significant news that people not following those threads ought to see, and considering that there is active censorship occurring regarding this news, I feel this needs it's own thread.
TL: DR: My point is that I'm not making a separate thread due to laziness.
------------------------------------------------------------------
As the COVID-19 Pandemic continues, the death toll continues to rise, especially in the United States, where more than 180,000 people have died since it began. However, a new figure released by the Centers for Disease Control has created a stir, especially after
it was retweeted by the President.
The
CDC updated the provisional counts on deaths that have occurred from COVID-19 on Aug. 26, and in the section on comorbidities, they revealed that only 6% of the deaths were caused by just the virus. That information has been seized on by those who believe the total deaths and the severity of the pandemic have been greatly exaggerated as an effort to undermine the President during an election year.
However, others also quickly pointed out that the number was under the comorbidities section, meaning that 94% of those deaths that were related to COVID were in those who also suffered from comorbidities—the same groups that were considered high risk when the pandemic first took hold.
Among the comorbidities that also contributed to the high death toll were hypertensive disease, diabetes, vascular and unspecific dementia, cardiac arrest and heart failure.
The pandemic and the way it has been handled has become a sticking point in the U.S., as it is politicized ahead of the presidential election. Specifically, many have
taken issue with mask mandates around the country, debating how effective they actually are at curbing the spread.
The new criticism on the death toll also comes after the CDC
changed its guidelines on exactly who needs to quarantine and when, with a 14-day period no longer required for international travelers, or from state-to-state.
However, while the guideline has changed, local governments can still impose restrictions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the things that have been associated with COVID deaths (including influenza and pneumonia, which this article fails to mention) are things that tend to kill people by themselves.
Twitter and Facebook have been scrubbing posts discussing this article. I suspect the ramifications will be pretty big if this gains more steam. I've attached the relevant paragraph from the CDC page as a screencap.
Given that similar data has been observed in Leafland, this adjusts our deaths from 9117 to just 548.
