Tuesday, 1 September 2020

Twitter removes QAnon conspiracy theory claiming CDC ‘quietly’ updated COVID-19 numbers

AUSTIN (KXAN/CNN) — On Sunday, Twitter removed a tweet that falsely claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “quietly” updated its numbers “to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from COVID-19.”

The claim originated from a tweet by a supporter of QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory group, and was later retweeted by Pres. Donald Trump.

The now-deleted tweet skewed the CDC’s update, which was public, and said that for 6% of deaths included in its statistics, “COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned” on their death certificates.

What this means is the remaining 94% of people included in the number were listed as having additional factors that contributed to their death.

The death certificates of these 94% of people would list both COVID-19 and other conditions, such as heart problems or cancer.

The removed tweet from a user called “Mel Q” was retweeted over 48,000 and CNN has reached out to the White House for a comment on the retweet.



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