Ernst “SO SKEPTICAL” of COVID-19 Death Rate, Echoes Conspiracy Theories As Cases In Iowa Surge

Iowa Starting Line: Ernst Suggests Iowa Doctors Falsifying COVID Cases For Money

Washington Post: Ernst’s comments echo conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon followers that have been debunked by doctors and public health experts

Senator Joni Ernst irresponsibly amplified debunked conspiracy theories this week when she said she was “so skeptical” of the COVID-19 death count and then suggested doctors, nurses, and health care professionals were falsifying coronavirus cases to collect a higher reimbursement. The reckless, disqualifying comments were first reported in the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier and came as Iowa continued to record among the highest number of new coronavirus cases of anywhere in the country.

Iowa Starting Line reported on the accusation and noted: “such an accusation from Ernst means she’s implying that the Iowa doctors and nurses that are risking their lives on the front lines of the pandemic are intentionally lying about patients’ conditions. That is an extremely inflammatory accusation to suggest, especially for a sitting U.S. senator.”

The Washington Post provided additional context that such information had been removed from Twitter and that Dr. Anthony Fauci forcefully dismissed the claim: “The numbers you’ve been hearing — there are 180,000-plus deaths — are real deaths from covid-19. Let [there] not be any confusion about that. It’s not 9,000 deaths from covid-19, it’s 180-plus-thousand deaths.”

This reckless comment is not the first time Senator Ernst has mishandled the public health crisis: she has previously downplayed the virus, spread misinformation, and was recently caught attending crowded events without wearing a mask.

“Theresa Greenfield is right — these are appalling comments from an elected official at a time when we can’t afford leaders who peddle false information and refuse to take this pandemic seriously,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Senator Ernst owes Iowans an apology and an explanation for why she’s attacking public health professionals who put their lives on the line instead of fighting for more relief for Iowa.”

Iowa Starting Line: Ernst Suggests Iowa Doctors Falsifying COVID Cases For Money

By Pay Rynard

Key Points: 

• Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst seemed to embrace on Monday a thoroughly-discredited QAnon conspiracy theory about U.S. deaths from COVID-19 being a mere fraction of what has been reported. 

• Going even further, however, Ernst also suggested that doctors were intentionally falsifying coronavirus cases in order to receive more money for caring for the patient.

• More than that, such an accusation from Ernst means she’s implying that the Iowa doctors and nurses that are risking their lives on the front lines of the pandemic are intentionally lying about patients’ conditions. That is an extremely inflammatory accusation to suggest, especially for a sitting U.S. senator.

• Again, these theories that Ernst is playing with are not simply far-right, anti-government theories, they also dishonor the health care professionals that Ernst herself has often called heroes during the pandemic.

Washington Post: ‘So skeptical’: Sen. Joni Ernst echoes conspiracy theory questioning coronavirus death count

By Katie Shephard

Key Points:

• When a man in the crowd of her Iowa campaign stop told Sen. Joni Ernst (R) on Monday that he believed the number of U.S. coronavirus deaths had been overcounted, Ernst replied that she too was “so skeptical.”

• Ernst’s comments echo conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon followers that have been debunked by doctors and public health experts. According to fact-checking site PolitiFact, public health experts believe the number of coronavirus deaths is probably undercounted, because many of the hardest-hit cities lacked the resources to effectively document every death early in the pandemic.

• Ernst did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post late Tuesday.

• Her inaccurate figure of 10,000 or fewer covid-19 deaths is similar to a widely spread QAnon meme that misinterpreted a recent study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That study said the coronavirus was the only contributing factor in 6 percent of reported deaths. 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. The study does not support that claim.

• 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.

Daily Beast: GOP Sen. Joni Ernst Pushes Conspiracy Theory About COVID Death Count

By Blake Montgomery

Key Points: 

• At an event Tuesday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) pushed a debunked conspiracy theory that just 6 percent of people reported dead from the new coronavirus in the U.S. actually died from the disease.

• She went so far as to accuse doctors and nurses of inflating the figure for increased compensation: “These health-care providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it, so what do you think they’re doing?”

• The baseless conspiracy theory, embraced by QAnon and right-wing media figures for months, has made its way to the White House—President Donald Trump has retweeted tweets pushing the idea of a false fatality count that Twitter later removed.

• Her remarks come on the same day that Anthony Fauci told Good Morning America of the victims of COVID-19 that “a certain percentage of them had nothing else but just COVID. That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of COVID-19. They did… It’s not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19, it’s 180-plus thousand deaths.” 

Talking Points Memo: Iowa Senator Pushes QAnon Theory About COVID Death Toll

By Zoë Richards

Key Points: 

• Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) told voters at a campaign event on Monday that she was “skeptical” about the official death toll reported for COVID-19 in the United States — perpetuating a widely discredited QAnon conspiracy theory that coronavirus-related deaths are actually far lower than reported.

• “They’re thinking there may be 10,000 or less deaths that were actually singularly COVID-19,” Ernst said, citing a figure falls within range of the conspiracy theory that only around 6% of COVID-19 deaths could be attributed to the virus.

• “I’m just really curious,” Ernst said, fanning the flame of the debunked claim. “It would be interesting to know that.”

• The brazen accusations follow similar suggestions by President Donald Trump who over the weekend retweeted a conspiracy theory shared by a QAnon supporter that  falsely claimed that about 9,000 people had “actually” died from coronavirus, instead of the much larger figures of 180,000 coming from reputable sources. The post from “Mel Q” was later removed by Twitter for violating the social media company’s policies about spreading misinformation.

• But Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, told Good Morning America that a COVID-19 death — is still a COVID-19 death, urging that there “not be any confusion about that.”

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