Nearly a Third of Americans Believe Covid-19 Death Toll Conspiracy theory

Do you believe that the Covid-19 Death Toll or Disease is a hoax or part of a conspiracy?


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ArmenianJohn

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Nearly A Third Of Americans Believe Covid-19 Death Toll Conspiracy Theory

What do people here think? Vote in the poll. Feel free to explain your choice, or if the poll didn't represent your response let us know what it is.

Politics clearly plays a big part in this. From the article:

"The growing belief that the death toll is inflated comes as Trump and his allies have attempted to discredit and attack public health experts, particularly infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. The White House has tried to undermine Fauci after the public health expert publicly warned the current pandemic situation was worse than the Trump administration was acknowledging, and Trump was criticized for sharing a tweet suggesting the CDC was “lying.” But while the Axios/Ipsos poll shows that the White House and conservative media’s messaging is landing with some Americans, a majority of the country still trusts public health experts like Fauci over the president. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found that 65% of Americans trusted information about the pandemic coming from Fauci, as compared with 67% who distrust information coming from Trump. Approval for the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has also reached an all-time low as cases have exploded, with the Quinnipiac poll finding 62% disapprove of his coronavirus response."
 

dogs4thewin

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I believe that people ARE dying ( a friend of mine dad's is currently fighting it with all he has and he may or may not make it, but I also believe based on what I have both heard AND seen with my own eyes ( numbers wise) that they are also using it as a scare tatic.
 
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Hank77

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but I also believe based on what I have both heard AND seen with my own eyes ( numbers wise) that they are also using it as a scare tatic.
Who is "they" and a "scare tactic" for what goal?
 
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dogs4thewin

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Who is "they" and a "scare tactic" for what goal?
To scare people into keeping up the fear factor and the people reporting the cases. What I have heard is that each positive test is counted as a case ( even if the person say tested positive waited several days and the SAME person tested positive again without testing negitive in between.

As to what I have SEEN take a look at this

COVID-19 Status Report

I do not know about other states but GA is adding together positive virus tests and antibody tests and counting both as if they were active cases. What they need to report is not the cases added together, but actual ACTIVE infections not anyone and everyone who as had it at some point.
 
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essentialsaltes

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dogs4thewin

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Yes, we know that scaring people causes fear. But what do you think is the goal of this scare tactic?
to get people to stay scare and do what they are told by the government.
 
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Hans Blaster

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Nearly A Third Of Americans Believe Covid-19 Death Toll Conspiracy Theory

What do people here think? Vote in the poll. Feel free to explain your choice, or if the poll didn't represent your response let us know what it is.

Politics clearly plays a big part in this. From the article:

"The growing belief that the death toll is inflated comes as Trump and his allies have attempted to discredit and attack public health experts, particularly infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. The White House has tried to undermine Fauci after the public health expert publicly warned the current pandemic situation was worse than the Trump administration was acknowledging, and Trump was criticized for sharing a tweet suggesting the CDC was “lying.” But while the Axios/Ipsos poll shows that the White House and conservative media’s messaging is landing with some Americans, a majority of the country still trusts public health experts like Fauci over the president. A Quinnipiac poll released last week found that 65% of Americans trusted information about the pandemic coming from Fauci, as compared with 67% who distrust information coming from Trump. Approval for the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has also reached an all-time low as cases have exploded, with the Quinnipiac poll finding 62% disapprove of his coronavirus response."

Ack! The stupid -- it burns!
 
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JustRachel

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I believe they are having problems getting accurate statistics. I fully believe it is real and have blocked friends on FB who subscribe to the conspiracy theories. The entire thing is stressful enough without them adding to my anxiety. I don't watch much news anymore either.
 
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Hank77

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To scare people into keeping up the fear factor and the people reporting the cases. What I have heard is that each positive test is counted as a case ( even if the person say tested positive waited several days and the SAME person tested positive again without testing negitive in between.

As to what I have SEEN take a look at this

COVID-19 Status Report

I do not know about other states but GA is adding together positive virus tests and antibody tests and counting both as if they were active cases. What they need to report is not the cases added together, but actual ACTIVE infections not anyone and everyone who as had it at some point.
I don't about what you heard but I highly doubt that it is true that they are taking tests from the same infected person and using both as a confirmed case. No state wants to have more cases. What would be the purpose of doing that? You said scaring people, why for what purpose?

Confirmed cases are only PCR positive tests, not anti-body test.

Molecular (PCR) tests detect active virus and infections. These tests are administered by collecting either nose, nose and throat, or throat specimens.

“Confirmed COVID-19 Cases”: This number represents confirmed cases only, defined as an individual with a positive molecular test. Only molecular test results are used in identifying confirmed cases.

https://ga-covid19.ondemand.sas.com/docs/GA_COVID19_Dashboard_Guide.pdf
 
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Blade

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Forgive me but.. thats from Forbes. I don't believe they are a fan of president Trump or Fox news. I watched :) one news network talking about all the stuff going on in some cities.. riots and stuff "its not that bad at all". Now talk about the virus..

I will say.. what I always hear from one side is NOT deaths but how BAD SCARY the virus is and how its growing. I am not hearing about more deaths. Now another network talked about the deaths and named the cities.

In this day and age.. its silly to listen to any of the left or right. One MUST look into each story to find out the truth.
 
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Richard T

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If one were to suggest COVID deaths, is a scare tactic, then we should take a look at terror management theory (TMT). Here is how one article lists it as political.

"A core element of Terror Management Theory is that humans will go to great lengths to avoid thinking about their mortality. This may be one reason it’s so difficult for societies to take action on global warming. Individuals may derive some psychological comfort from the denial of climate change, but counterintuitively, doing so could jeopardize the survival of the species." https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/terror-management-theory

It would seem that many people are in denial of COVID. Peace and Prosperity Christians may be the worst for this. It simply does not fit their world view. Some even prophesied that this would go away in March, April, etc. Others rightly pray and declare the virus away. However, though it is true that God delivers us out of all afflictions, we must realize that it is not always on our time frame. Trump himself seemed to be in denial too until recently he is now beginning to take this seriously. It could be that the death of his grandfather in the Spanish Flu, forced him into denial?

What is also interesting about TMT is that it enhances your ideological and group tendencies. So suspicions of outside groups are far more likely. Thus, we have many who refuse to believe the numbers. Let's just hope that the election is fair in the USA. If it is seen or even perceived as illegitimate, there could be some serious social unrest.
 
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Hans Blaster

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Forgive me but.. thats from Forbes. I don't believe they are a fan of president Trump or Fox news. I watched :) one news network talking about all the stuff going on in some cities.. riots and stuff "its not that bad at all". Now talk about the virus..

Why should that matter. Based on the summary above (I can't read the article), this is about a poll of people's opinions on a variety of topics including whether the COVID-19 death rates are inflated as some sort of conspiracy. Whether you think that conspiracy claim is warranted or not, that 1/3 of surveyed Americans believe it is a fact not related to the political bias of the news site writing about it.
 
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pitabread

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I think the death toll is inflated in an effort to qualify for as much federal aid as possible.

Unfortunately, the opposite appears to be true. Analysis of aggregate population fatalities suggests the official death toll from COVID-19 is probably understated, not overstated.

IOW, this pandemic is probably worse than the official numbers indicate.
 
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I don't about what you heard but I highly doubt that it is true that they are taking tests from the same infected person and using both as a confirmed case. No state wants to have more cases. What would be the purpose of doing that? You said scaring people, why for what purpose?

Confirmed cases are only PCR positive tests, not anti-body test.

Molecular (PCR) tests detect active virus and infections. These tests are administered by collecting either nose, nose and throat, or throat specimens.

“Confirmed COVID-19 Cases”: This number represents confirmed cases only, defined as an individual with a positive molecular test. Only molecular test results are used in identifying confirmed cases.

https://ga-covid19.ondemand.sas.com/docs/GA_COVID19_Dashboard_Guide.pdf
I am confused because they say we have 4k some cases today, but only 3k something of them were actual active cases that is how I got that.
 
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ArmenianJohn

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I am confused because they say we have 4k some cases today, but only 3k something of them were actual active cases that is how I got that.
Where are you getting that from that "only 3k something of them were actual active cases"???
 
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Hank77

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I am confused because they say we have 4k some cases today, but only 3k something of them were actual active cases that is how I got that.
Under the chart where you see the 3,430 cases today, there is this Note...

Note: these data only include lab tests reported to DPH by electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) and do not represent all tests performed in Georgia. The number of positive tests in this chart will not match the number of confirmed cases because the case numbers include all reporting sources, not just ELR.
Confirmed cases are 4,286 - 3,430 (reported by ELR) = 856 (reported by other means, doctors office, etc.)
 
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dogs4thewin

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Where are you getting that from that "only 3k something of them were actual active cases"???
From my understanding the remaining cases are those that tested positive for anti-bodies meaning they had it at one time.
 
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Under the chart where you see the 3,430 cases today, there is this Note...

Note: these data only include lab tests reported to DPH by electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) and do not represent all tests performed in Georgia. The number of positive tests in this chart will not match the number of confirmed cases because the case numbers include all reporting sources, not just ELR.
Confirmed cases are 4,286 - 3,430 (reported by ELR) = 856 (reported by other means, doctors office, etc.)
so does that mean that for example when today there were 4k something cases only some of those appear in the report?
 
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