3 DOORS DOWN singer Brad Arnold is promoting a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.
On Saturday (August 29), Arnold took to his Instagram to share a screenshot of a small section of the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention web site showing how many people who died from COVID-19 had underlying medical conditions that attributed to their death. The graphic Arnold shared includes the headline: “This week the CDC quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6% of all the 161,392 deaths recorded actually died solely from Covid.”
In the latest update, the CDC pointed out that only 6% of deaths related to COVID-19 listed COVID-19 as the only cause of death. The vast majority of patients that were listed as COVID-19-related deaths also suffered from serious comorbidities.
In sharing the graphic on his Instagram, Arnold captioned it using lyrics from his new solo single, “Wicked Man”: “A never ending circus to distract us from their lies.” The song was written earlier this year and was inspired by Brad‘s observation that much of what we see on social media and on TV is “orchestrated” by what he believes “is proverbially a wicked man,” he said in a recent interview. “We’re trying to be manipulated to move in such a way that benefits a very, very few people,” he explained. “And this song is just describing the moves that they make to make us move.”
The CDC has reported 167,558 COVID-19-related deaths in the United State as of August 28, 2020. Out of the 167,558 COVID-19-related deaths, 10,053 (6%) have COVID-19 listed as the only cause. The other 94% of the COVID-19-related deaths had comorbidities associated with those deaths.
For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.
There are theories that medical experts are inflating the number of coronavirus-related deaths to scare residents into complying with various states’ executive orders, such as one that requires residents to wear masks in public places. There have also been claims that the lockdowns weren’t designed for public health, but rather to destroy the Trump economy.
According to Forbes, the number of Americans who believe the death toll is inflated is highest among those who get their news from Fox News (61%) and Republicans (59%), while only 9% of Democrats and 7% of those getting their news from CNN and MSNBC believe the same.
Many health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have rejected claims that coronavirus deaths are being exaggerated.
Back in January 2017, Arnold defended 3 DOORS DOWN‘s decision to perform at then-President-elect Donald Trump‘s “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration”, saying that “it’s all about America.”
The band’s manager, Angus Vail, told Vice that 3 DOORS DOWN played the event because they are conservatives.
“They come from conservative families,” Vail explained. “When Obama got elected, the singer [Brad] said, ‘Please don’t talk to my father about Obama because he thinks the world has ended.’ He was just as horrified and depressed about Obama as many are about Trump. They were, like, ‘It’s going to be Armageddon, the whole world is going to communism and he’s going to give everything away to the welfare state.'”
Asked what 3 DOORS DOWN‘s political beliefs are, Vail said: “3 DOORS have that ‘God, guns, and country’ black-and-white sort of viewpoint, and they spend a lot of time going to Iraq, doing service, playing for the troops. They believe it, and that’s just the way they see America. It’s pretty hard to argue with. You say, ‘What about the nuances, what about the gray areas?’ and they say, ‘No, no, God, guns, America is the greatest country on earth.’ They stick to that viewpoint.”
Photo courtesy of Rock 100.5 The KATT
