Twitter removes QAnon supporter’s false claim about coronavirus death statistics that Trump had retweeted

The tweet — which has been replaced with a message saying, “This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules — from “Mel Q,” copied from someone else’s Facebook post, claimed that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had “quietly” updated its numbers “to admit that only 6%” of people listed as coronavirus deaths “actually died from Covid,” since “the other 94% had 2-3 other serious illnesses.”

That is not at all the same thing as saying only 6% of reported Covid-19 deaths “actually died” from Covid-19. It simply means that the other 94% were listed as having at least one additional factor contributing to their death.

For example, the other 94% includes people whose death certificate listed both Covid-19 and obesity, both Covid-19 and diabetes, or both Covid-19 and heart disease — among other conditions.

People can live with obesity, diabetes or heart disease for years but then get infected with Covid-19 and die quickly. The fact that they also had an underlying condition does not mean that Covid-19 was not a major reason, or the major reason, they died when they did.

Its statistics page currently says that for “deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”

Trump shared the false information with his 85 million-plus followers. As of 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, the now deleted “Mel Q” tweet Trump amplified had been retweeted more than 48,000 times.