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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWill lie about death toll
Greg Sargent
Opinion writer
May 15, 2020 at 10:40 a.m. EDT
... Trumps endgame will be to lie about the coronavirus death toll, in a last-ditch effort to prevent it from overwhelming his reelection hopes ...
... Democratic senators ... are ... calling on officials to work with outside experts to establish a methodology from which it will not diverge, before Trump inevitably begins .. low-balling the death count ...
Last month, Harris sent another letter to the administration, highlighting numerous problems in how deaths are currently counted such as inconsistencies in methods used by states and insufficient testing, which could be producing undercounts.
That letter urged the administration to work with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to develop clear, temporary, federal guidelines in counting deaths. In the new letter, the Democrats note that they havent heard anything back from the administration ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/15/trump-will-lie-about-death-toll-kamala-harris-has-way-stop-him/
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)15 MAY 2020
SF POLITICS
JAY BARMANN
... as the Washington Post reports, the White House appears to be on a concerted campaign to keep the ultimate American death toll from COVID-19 from rising above what Trump previously moronically and without scientific basis claimed it would be. And it's clear that when it comes time to talk about death numbers in campaign speeches and debates, he will do everything he can to fudge the numbers or claim they're an overcount.
Experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci have been saying, if anything, we are likely undercounting deaths due to the number of people dying at home without seeking medical attention, or those who did not get confirmed test results before dying of a condition exacerbated or brought on by the virus. As of today, the U.S. has seen 86,000 deaths, and the country has been adding between 1,000 and 2,500 deaths per day for the last 10 days ...
The New York Times reported two weeks ago on these gaps between current death counts for March and April in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Massachusetts and those in the previous five years, showing huge differences that can likely be attributed either to unconfirmed COVID-19 cases, or to the indirect impacts of the pandemic on hospitals and emergency rooms that have caused people either to avoid seeking treatment for other problems, or to receive inadequate or delayed treatment at overwhelmed medical facilities. Sorting those numbers out may never be satisfactorily done, or it may take a long time for experts to better estimate the COVID deaths that were not documented ...
https://sfist.com/2020/05/15/trump-is-already-trying-to-lie-about-the-covid-19-death-count-kamala-harris/
sheshe2
(83,791 posts)He will continue to lie about the death toll....
And his magical vaccine.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)Posted: May 13, 2020 5:18 PM EDT
Updated: May 13, 2020 6:03 PM EDT
By Kevin Liptak and Jim Acosta, CNN
... As nationwide case numbers show a steady decrease, Trump and some of his aides have begun questioning whether deaths are being over-counted, according to people familiar with the matter, even as the President publicly attests to the accuracy of the numbers.
The top medical expert on the White House's coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said the opposite could be true: that coronavirus deaths are being undercounted as people die at home without going to hospital ...
The death count questions illustrate the degree to which Trump and his allies have begun to scrutinize the data and advice emerging from government sources: Death counts are questioned, models are doubted, recommendations are debated and discarded and medical experts -- even those widely trusted by the American people -- are viewed with suspicion.
As the President agitates for a national reopening and looks ahead to November's election, his allies and even some of his own advisers have sown distrust in the institutions and data which underpin his coronavirus response ...
http://www.kten.com/story/42126745/trump-privately-questions-whether-coronavirus-deaths-are-being-overcounted-as-fauci-projects-the-opposite
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)... Now, the administration is questioning reality ...
05.08.2020 01:05 PM
... The first wave of attacks from coronavirus truthers, sniping at the models that predicted a catastrophe, were eerily similar to those used by climate change skeptics: They started by denying the forecasts, then shifted into claims about how the costs of containment would outweigh the benefits. But those tactics, which pitted current sacrifice against potential future calamity, no longer fit the situation on the ground. If youre saying climate change will never be a problem, you might not live long enough to find out that youre wrong. But if you said a few months ago that Covid-19 wouldnt be a big deal in the US, well, youve already been debunked.
Sure, its possible that death-toll trutherism will crumble if states ease restrictions prematurely, and infection rates shoot up. But one should never underestimate the presidents ability, aided by Fox News, to shape his supporters perceptions of reality. According to a daily tracking poll by Civiqs, Republicans level of concern over local outbreaks peaked in early April and has plummeted over the past month, even in states that have seen a sharp increase in cases over that span. Add the disturbing fact that coronavirus deaths are disproportionately concentrated among African Americans, and its possible to imagine a real split emerging over the basic, if necessarily murky, question of how many people have died.
Then theres the matter of whos responsible for however many deaths the president concedes did happen. Like a lawyer pleading in the alternative, Trump has always presented parallel theories to the American jury: the situation isnt as bad as everyone says; but then again, the bad situation isnt his fault. As part of an effort to promote the latter argument, the White House has promoted a questionable origin story for the pandemic that blames it on Chinese mismanagement or malfeasance. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABCs Martha Raddatz that hed seen a significant amount of evidence that the outbreak originated in a research lab in Wuhan, and hinted that it might have been intentionally released. A few days later, he declared that China could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide ...
This presents a delicate challenge for would-be debunkers. Its tempting to confront misleading claims with their exact oppositeyes, the official death count is precisely accurate; no, we know for sure that the virus didnt originate in a labbut those claims arent true, either. Meanwhile, picking fights about the pasthow many people have already died, where the virus got its startgives cover for the truthers shift in tactics. It no longer works to say the experts are panicked over nothing. Covid models arent great, but in the broadest sense theyve been correct: The new coronavirus did arrive in the US, and tens of thousands or more have already died. Desperate claims to the contrary were destined to be disproven. But when it comes to arguing with skeptics over what has already happened, we cant just wait them out.
https://www.wired.com/story/as-deaths-mount-trumps-disinformation-strategy-will-adapt/
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)maxrandb
(15,334 posts)Will Dr Scarf-Face help him?