Fauci Rejects ‘Conspiracy Theory’ That Coronavirus Death Toll Is Inflated

The coronavirus death toll is being questioned by some who are suggesting that the number of deaths caused by the virus is being inflated.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson suggested during his show on Tuesday that officials are inflating the number of deaths of the virus. He argued that officials are counting individuals who died, who had the virus and an underlying condition, as a coronavirus death when their death could actually have been caused by a different health issue.

He cited a report that said the number of pneumonia deaths was “far lower” and suggested doctors were “classifying conventional pneumonia deaths as COVID-19 deaths.”

Dr. Deborah Birx said during a White House press briefing on Tuesday that officials are counting people if they tested positive with the coronavirus when they died, even if there was another cause of the death.

However, in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show” on Thursday morning, Dr. 👤Anthony Fauci called the suggestion that the death toll is inflated a “conspiracy theory.”

“There is absolutely no evidence that that’s the case, at all,” Fauci said. “I think it falls under the category of something that’s very unfortunate, these conspiracy theories that we hear about.”

He added, “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.”