A Yahoo News story falsely claimed that a new study found Florida was undercounting COVID-19 deaths.
The Yahoo story, written by national correspondent Alexander Nazaryan, …
A Yahoo News story falsely claimed that a new study found Florida was undercounting COVID-19 deaths. The Yahoo story, written by national correspondent Alexander Nazaryan, claimed that Florida falsely categorized nearly 5,000 excess deaths, citing a study published in the American Journal of Public Health. However, the authors of that study told National Review the Yahoo framing of their findings is incorrect. “Florida is undercounting the number of people who died from COVID-19 by thousands of cases, casting new doubt on claims that Gov. Ron DeSantis navigated the coronavirus pandemic successfully,” wrote Nazaryan. “In the case of Florida, the researchers say,4,924 excess deaths should have been counted as resulting from COVID-19 but for the most part were ruled as having been caused by something else, thus lowering Florida’s coronavirus fatality count.” The study’s lead author, Moosa Tatar, said the Yahoo story’s conclusion was incorrect because the researchers did not yet know for sure how many excess deaths were attributable to COVID-19.
