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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