After lobbying from CNN, Facebook on Tuesday censored a tweet by President Trump in which he stated that COVID-19 is less deadly than the seasonal flu in most populations.
"Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu," the president wrote. "Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"
Twitter slapped a warning message on the tweet requiring the reader to click on it to view it.
The message says: "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."
Critics of the president emphasized the fact that more than 200,000 Americans have been counted as deaths related to COVID-19.
However, the current Centers for Disease Control data shows influenza is deadlier among children ages 0-17 than COVID-19. During the 2018-19 flu season, the CDC recorded 480 flu deaths among children ages 0-17 in the United States. About 90 died from coronavirus complications from the beginning of the pandemic through mid-August, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.
The CDC last month issued new estimates that showed people under 50 years infected by COVID-19 have nearly a 100% survival rate. It broke down to a 99.997% survival rate for 0-19; 99.98% for ages 20-49; 99.5% for 50-69; and 94.6% for those over 70.
Those who died of coronavirus, according to the CDC, had an average of 2.6 comorbidities, meaning more than two chronic diseases along with COVID-19. Overall, the CDC says, just 6% of the people counted as COVID-19 deaths died of COVID-19 alone.
Meanwhile, according to World Health Organization estimates, the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 is only 0.13%. That's a little more than one-tenth of 1%, which the WHO says is the rate for the seasonal flu.
The WHO's estimate in March of a death rate of 3.4% sparked panic worldwide, fueling the catastrophic lockdowns.
A rate of 3.4% is 26 times higher than a rate of 0.13%.
Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020
Study: Virus weakening
A new study by researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan found COVID-19's severity may be fading as the death rate falls.
In August, the New York Times found in an analysis of data that up to 90% of people testing positive carried barely any virus.
Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilli summarized her story on Twitter: "NEW: All these months into the pandemic, we may have been testing the wrong way. Data from some state labs suggest up to 90% (!!) of people who get a positive result are no longer contagious and don't need to isolate."
The CDC's overall count shows a significant downward trend from a peak of 17,054 deaths on April 18.
Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 death count shows a downward trend from a peak on April 18, 2020 (CDC)
A recent study by researchers at the Houston Methodist Research Institute raised concerns about coronavirus mutations as the fall season begins. Among more than 5,000 genetic sequences of COVID-19 they found more than 90% of samples contained a mutation.
Significantly, however, the Houston researchers found the mutations did not make the virus deadlier.
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