Other posts misrepresented comments made by Scott Davison, the CEO of the Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica. Davison said in a press conference in late December that his firm saw a 40% rise in death rates among working-age individuals insured under its group life policy in the third quarter of 2021. Some posts used that statistic to falsely imply vaccines were to blame, with one blog claiming the data showed a “record number of younger people in the workforce were dying after the roll-out of COVID-19 ‘vaccines.’”
These posts misrepresent comments byDavison and others in the insurance industry. More than half of the excess deaths in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2021 were caused by COVID-19, Davison said in a statement to The Associated Press, citing CDC data.
“CDC data indicates that 65% of 3Q excess deaths can be directly attributed to COVID,” Davison said. “Our own claims data is consistent with that as well. Based on the data and our analysis, we believe that a significant portion of the remaining excess deaths are driven by deferred medical care and individuals who recover from COVID but later die from the toll COVID has taken on their bodies.”