A Fox News Conspiracy—Are Coronavirus Death Numbers Inflated?—Attacked By Fauci, Birx

Topline: A new conspiracy theory—growing in particular on Fox News—that official coronavirus death toll numbers are padded with people who would’ve died anyway from preexisting conditions has some of the nation’s top health officials, including White House coronavirus task force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, speaking out to debunk it. 

• Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson, anchor Harris Faulkner, and longtime analyst Brit Hume have suggested the coronavirus death toll, which stood at 15,000 in the U.S. and over 90,000 worldwide on Thursday, is too high because it includes the deaths of those already sick to begin with. 
• “Well, it seems entirely possible that doctors are classifying conventional pneumonia deaths as COVID-19 deaths,” Carlson said on his talk show Tuesday, adding “that would mean this epidemic is being credited for thousands of deaths that would have occurred if the virus never appeared here” (he also claimed there are “reasons” some may “seek an inaccurate death count”).
• Birx addressed this directly at the White House briefing Wednesday, saying that even though the virus is “particularly damaging” for people with preexisting conditions, their “underlying condition did not cause [their death]” — the coronavirus did. 
• Fauci, following up on Birx’s comments, was more critical of conspiracy theories in general: “You will always have conspiracy theories when you have a very challenging public health crises. They are nothing but distractions.”
• For months, allies of President Trump in conservative media have downplayed the coronavirus outbreak and suggested some are using it as a “political weapon” against the president, as Fox News’ Sean Hannity said on March 10.
• At the same time, officials at the Centers for Disease Control say the death toll is actually being underreported due to lack of testing. 

Crucial quote: Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Wednesday on Sean Hannity’s radio show that “many people who are dying” of the virus “were on their last legs anyway.” 

Key background: On his show, Carlson pointed to Centers for Disease Control data showing that casualties from pneumonia are down. “For the last few weeks, that [pneumonia] number has come in far lower than at the same moment in previous years. How could that be?” Carlson said. But Aaron Blake of the Washington Post noted that the CDC data shows the number of pneumonia deaths is down only slightly, and those figures will not be complete for months. 

Big number: 37%. That’s the percentage of Fox News viewers who, according to a recent survey from Pew Research, said they believed COVID-19 came about naturally rather than in a laboratory, suggesting the media outlet you watch may be having a major effect on how you understand the virus