The president
retweeted a link to that, too, and the phrase “only 6%”
trended on Twitter.
Several media outlets flipped the percentage and reported that 94% of COVID-19 deaths had “underlying medical conditions.”
But the data on which all of this is based come from
death certificates, which list any causes or conditions that contributed to a person’s death. In the case of COVID-19, the disease often
causes other serious conditions, such as pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. Those two conditions are among the ailments with the highest counts in the
CDC’s comorbidity chart. Some long-term conditions that
increase the risk for severe COVID-19, such as diabetes or hypertension, were also listed.
The
underlying cause of death, however, is the condition that started the chain of events that led to a person’s death. In 92% of all deaths that mention COVID-19, that disease is
listed as the underlying cause of death, Jeff Lancashire, spokesman for the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, told FactCheck.org in an email.