NC-SEN: Thom Tillis embraced QAnon conspiracy about COVID-19 death count in town hall

[RandySF]

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on Thursday told a virtual town hall audience that he believed the 200,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. had been inflated in order to "encourage people to use social distancing."

"When the final accounting is done," the actual COVID-19 death count will be lower, Tillis

The response echoes a false conspiracy theory pushed by adherents of the baseless QAnon movement: that public health officials are allegedly lying to the public about the true death count because of ulterior or possibly sinister motives. Only 6% of the reported deaths are attributable solely to COVID-19, conspiracy theorists claim.

Tillis also embraced an extreme anti-vaccine position and appeared to welcome herd immunity as part of a strategy to get 60% of the country immune. (Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said last month that a herd immunity strategy would lead to an "enormous" death rate that would be "totally unacceptable."



https://www.salon.com/2020/09/24/exclusive-gop-sen-thom-tillis-embraced-qanon-conspiracy-about-covid-19-death-count-in-town-hall/

[Laelth]

1. It's more likely that we are actually UNDERCOUNTING COVID-19 deaths.

Tillis is in bad shape if he is embracing this nonsense. May he go down with all the science-deniers and their ilk.

-Laelth

[Doremus]

2. I believe you're right.

The last I read there have been 240,000-something more deaths than expected this year.

[LastDemocratInSC]

3. Tillis is trolling for additional votes

by scraping the bottom of the ideological barrel.