On Wednesday, Ernst walked back her comments in a statement shared with The Post, acknowledging the large U.S. death toll. “Over 180,000 Americans have died because of COVID-19," Ernst said. The conspiracy theory that claims the U.S. death toll is inflated incorrectly assumes that only 6 percent of deaths should be counted in the covid-19 death tally. In the other 94 percent of coronavirus deaths, the victims had at least one other contributing factor. In the past week, new coronavirus cases have spiked by nearly 84 percent in Ernst’s state and the death toll increased by 25 percent.

Source: Washington Post September 02, 2020 08:32 UTC