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Thursday, Apr 22, 2021

Are COVID-19 death totals off by nearly 25%?

Dana Ford, Lead Stories
no

There's no evidence to substantiate a post's claim that death totals are off by nearly 25%. The post making the claim provided no sourcing except to urge users to check out a news website.

Lead Stories conducted a search on the news site referenced in the post. The search produced eight results, none of which had anything to do with how COVID-19 deaths are reported. Other internet searches also failed to produce anything to substantiate the claim.

Worldwide, more than 3 million deaths have been reported, according to Johns Hopkins University, which tracks COVID-19's toll.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also tracks COVID-19 deaths, and as of April 21, 2021, reported 565,613 deaths in the United States.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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