Topic: WorldNetDaily
It's not just election fraud conspiracy theories that WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is peddling these days -- it's also coronavirus conspiracy theories. Farah wrote in his Dec. 29 column:
Two Minnesota state lawmakers are the latest to call for an audit of death certificates citing coronavirus, saying COVID-19 deaths could have been inflated by as much as 40%.
State Rep. Mary Franson and state Sen. Scott Jensen, a physician, have released a video on their findings:
"I have … examples where COVID isn't the underlying cause of death, where we have a fall,” she said in the video. “Another example is we have a freshwater drowning. We have dementia. We have a stroke and multi-organ failure.”
In one case, she added, a person who was ejected from a car was "counted as a COVID death" because the virus was in his system.
Franson said at least 800 of the "death certificate data points" inspected by them indicated the virus was not the underlying cause of death.
But Farah didn't mention the relevant fact that Minnesota state officials have debunked Jensen and Franson's claims:
Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann says MDH follows the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics on defining COVID-19 deaths.
"When we look at the number of deaths reported via [the NCHS], the number they’re reporting is consistent with what we are reporting," Ehresmann said. "We’re absolutely following the national guidance on how we are doing our death reporting from COVID-19.
Ehresman said car crash victims are not being counted among the state’s COVID-19 deaths.
"If someone had tested positive for COVID and then subsequently died, we would review the death certificate and motor vehicle accident would be the cause of death and so it would not be considered a COVID death," Ehresmann said.
Farah went on to write:
Questions continue to be raised by legislators in other states. A Southern Arizona lawmaker is claiming a new study he commissioned shows there is no correlation between the rising number of people being infected with COVID-19 and the number who wind up in the hospital. Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, is accusing the state health department of withholding the raw numbers that would allow him and other lawmakers to decide whether the trends being cited by Gov. Doug Ducey to justify his actions are merited.
But Finchem is a far-right-fringe politican who has links to the violent Oath Keepers militia, tried to make gold legal tender in Arizona and cheered the Capitol riot but then falsely blamed Antifa for the violence. So he's not exactly a reliable source.
If Farah is going to double down on the same type of conspriacy theories that have nearly put WND out of business, maybe he needs to spend some more time recovering from his health issues.
