Coronavirus
Facebook removes Roger Marshall’s post on CDC coronavirus death data, congressman says
Congressman Roger Marshall said Facebook removed a post he made on COVID-19 death data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Social media companies should not be allowed to censor science that they disagree with,” Marshall said Tuesday in a new Facebook post. “This is corporate censorship, pure and simple.”
The Republican doctor represents western Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives and is running for the Senate against Democrat Barbara Bollier, who is also a doctor.
Marshall said his original Facebook post was published on Sunday and received nearly 80,000 views and thousands of shares before it was taken down on Monday. He said the post was about new CDC data on COVID-19 patients who had died and also had underlying health conditions.
The CDC reported that for 6% of coronavirus disease deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause listed. The other 94% of deaths had at least one additional contributing condition or cause of death.
Marshall’s original post suggested that the 94% of COVID-19 deaths with underlying health conditions did not die from COVID-19. Rather, they died with COVID-19 and as the result of other illnesses, he said, according to a screenshot obtained by Topeka television station KSNT. He said the CDC “quietly updated” the death data.
As of Tuesday, there have been more than 180,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States.
“As a physician, I believe in discussing all data, options, and research with my patients,” Marshall said. “This was data published by the CDC, but unfortunately did not fit the narrative that the left and the liberal media want us to believe. We cannot allow social media companies to determine what we do and not learn about this virus. Americans deserve to be informed.”
Bollier’s campaign criticized Marshall, saying he spread “misleading and dangerous” information.
“He regularly refuses to wear a mask or maintain social distance while campaigning in public. He continues to hawk hydroxychloroquine,” said Alexandra De Luca, Bollier’s spokesperson, in a statement. “And rather than giving Kansans advice based on what he should have learned in medical school, he says whatever his fellow DC politicians want him to. The last thing we need in Washington is a doctor-turned-politician who has been caught repeatedly — now even by Facebook — spreading misinformation about the pandemic.”
Marshall said Facebook removed the post without an explanation.
The Facebook community standards state that the company may remove posts related to the coronavirus pandemic for several reasons, including spreading misinformation.
“We’re working to remove content that has the potential to contribute to real-world harm, including through our policies prohibiting coordination of harm, sale of medical masks and related goods, hate speech, bullying and harassment and misinformation that contributes to the risk of imminent violence or physical harm,” the community standards read.
Dr. Thomas Moore, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, said that people have misinterpreted the CDC death data on underlying health conditions. Almost all death certificates list one or more contributing conditions, which doctors call comorbidities.
In the case of COVID-19, many of the comorbid factors such as pneumonia, lung disease, kidney and heart failure are actually caused by the coronavirus infection and the patient wouldn’t have had those if they didn’t catch the virus.
Additionally, many people with common pre-existing conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes would have lived for years or even decades if they didn’t catch COVID, he said.
For example, he said, almost 40 percent of Americans are considered clinically obese and two-thirds are overweight. Add in other comorbidities and it’s a broad majority of the population.
And, “For those who think they’re in the 6% range where they don’t have any comorbidities and they’re just fine, the problem is they will transmit (COVID) to those who do,” Moore said.
“I would challenge anybody who thinks it’s nothing to come on down to the ICU,” he said. “I’ll be happy to show you what nothing can do.”
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