Covid Lethality

Did Lin Wood have iron-clad sources for his on-camera claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in a landslide, that COVID-19 is a mild flu China used as a weapon against the U.S. and that the Pfizer vaccine is dangerous? No, that's not true: In his interview on the "Patriotically Correct" show, the Atlanta lawyer recycled false claims that…

Is it true that the novel coronavirus has not crossed borders, that 2020 death rates are not higher than an average year, that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe and ineffective and that COVID is no more lethal and infectious than the flu? No, none of those claims is true. Full-time virologists, vaccinologists, epidemiologists and public health officials cite peer-reviewed professional studies…

Does the 99% COVID survival rate prove lockdowns are "no longer about health," but instead about government control? No, that's not true: A 1% fatality rate is not low for an infectious disease, public health experts point out. And, because COVID spreads easily from person to person -- even with some Americans wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines --…

Is it true the lethality of COVID-19 is being overblown by government mortality data, and was a Johns Hopkins University student paper censored when it posted a story about that claim? No, that is not true. There is no evidence that official COVID-19 death tallies have hidden some other cause of unexpected deaths in 2020. The student paper's retracted article…

Did the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention downgrade COVID-19, rating it less fatal than seasonal flu? No, that's not true: The Sept. 10, 2020, document used as "proof" clearly states it is not a source of COVID data, and that it was created with multiple variables to help hospitals and public health officials build mathematical simulations to test…

Is COVID-19 the most highly survivable virus? No, that's not true: Chickenpox and Epstein-Barr (mononucleosis) are widespread and rarely lethal. Effective vaccines make those and lethal viruses like rabies and smallpox almost 100% survivable in the U.S. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus killed 200,000 Americans and 972,000 worldwide by Sept. 23, 2020. The claim originated in a Facebook post (archived here)…

Did a math mistake by America's most visible pandemic fighter panic U.S. leaders into imposing strict quarantines? No, that's not true: A published claim by a Kremlin-controlled propaganda website offers no evidence that a statistic known as "case fatality rate" drove mayors and governors to order quarantines. At least one governor, Jay Inslee of Washington, focused on an entirely different…

Has the coronavirus mortality rate been proven to be 0.03% -- far less deadly than previously thought? No, that's not true: It is one theory put forward over the last week by two doctors in Bakersfield, California, whose comments stirred controversy and prompted national debate after YouTube zapped videos of their news conference off its platform. However, as it is,…

Did the flu kill 80,000 people in the United States last year? No, that's not true: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that during the 2018-2019 flu season, there were 34,200 influenza-associated deaths. Still, the false claim is being spread on social media to challenge media reports about the lethality of COVID-19. The meme has been widely…