Fauci: 'Absolutely no evidence' coronavirus death toll is being inflated

Conservative media figures have begun promoting conspiracy theories that the number of deaths attributable to the coronavirus is being artificially inflated. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, dismissed those theories in an interview on Thursday.

From the April 9 edition of NBC’s “Today”:

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC: You weighed in on a theory that’s been floating around that perhaps the number of fatalities related to COVID-19 is being inflated because people are actually dying of other things. What’s your read on that theory?

 

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: You know, Savannah, there is absolutely no evidence that that’s the case at all. You know, I think it falls under the category of something that’s very unfortunate – these conspiracy theories that we hear about. Every time we have a crisis of any sort, there’s always this popping-up of conspiracy theories.

 

I think the deaths that we’re seeing are coronavirus deaths, and the other deaths are not being counted as coronavirus deaths.

 

GUTHRIE: On the flip side of that, do you think there’s a potential that we’re undercounting coronavirus deaths? Because unfortunately we see in New York some people are dying at home and there has been a persistent lack of testing.

 

FAUCI: That’s a good point. I think there’s more of a chance of missing some that are really coronavirus deaths that are not being counted, but I don’t think that number is significant enough to really substantially modify the trends that we’re seeing at all.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.