Trump Reportedly Pressing CDC To Change How They Count COVID-19 Deaths

[Amber]

Trump's facing his biggest test yet as president with the coronavirus pandemic. Over the course of the past few months, he's faced severe criticism for the ways he's decided to handle the pandemic as well as his recent efforts to reopen the economy. He's praised the protestors who've been pressing their state's governor to open the country back up, despite health officials claiming that it is an unwise decision.

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According to White House sources that spoke to the Daily Beast, Trump has reportedly been applying pressure on the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention to work out a new method to tallying the COVID-19 death tolls. The U.S. coronavirus death toll is upwards of 82,300 currently, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the COVID-19 task force, reportedly wanted to remove two categories that would ultimately lower the death toll -- those who presumably died from coronavirus without taking a test and those who've had the virus but died due to other causes.

There has been worries that the numbers haven't accurately reflected the situation from Birx who reportedly said that she thinks there's a possibility they could be inflated. Trump has, however, supported the CDC's numbers publicly, though there's apparently skepticism among his team from behind closed doors.

CDC's Bob Anderson defended the way the CDC is handling the situation as well as the death counts. Anderson said the doctors had specific instructions to say whether coronavirus was the cause of the death.

[Via]

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