MSNBC host Chris Hayes is being slammed for tweeting a conspiracy theory that coronavirus experts purposefully over-projected the number of coronavirus deaths so President Trump could “take a victory lap.”
Coronavirus task force members warned that death tolls from COVID-19 could be as high as 250,000 – but experts have said that now because of social distancing measures, figures could be much lower.
Trump said at a press conference yesterday that if the death toll was kept “substantially under [100,000] – which was the original projection – I think we all did a very good job, even though that’s a lot of people.”
Hayes quoted a clip of the President’s remark, speculating on the anti-Trump conspiracy.
“The most cynical interpretation of all this, one I can’t quite bring myself to accept, is they rolled out the model showing 100k deaths after they knew it would be less than that so they could anchor everyone to that # and take a vicotry lap when ‘only’ tens of thousands died,” Hayes tweeted.
Model projections for the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. from different experts ranged from the thousands up to 2.2 million.
Estimates were based on a variety of scenarios, with the highest death toll projections being figured if no action was taken to suppress the COVID-19 outbreak curve.
The White House’s Coronavirus Task Force projections – ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 – factored in some social distancing measures.
Earlier this week, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield – among other experts – said that the fatalities may be below that range, because more people than expected are practicing social distancing.
Hayes’ comment was quickly slammed, with some users pointing out that models have changed based on a variety of factors.
“Irresponsible,” Andy Ngo, editor-at-large of The Post Millennial tweeted to Hayes.
“Their former estimate wasn’t out of step with lots of experts at the time,” Conor Friedersdorf, a staff writer at The Atlantic tweeted.
One user replied: “Most sane people would say ‘Oh god, the original estimates were high.'”
“If you watched the press briefings you would know that they said repeatedly their goal was significantly lower than those numbers. Dr. Fauci only said it a half dozen times,” one user said sarcastically, referencing Coronavirus Task Force expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
One user said: “MSNBC hosts are the kings and queens of conspiracy theories.”
Hayes added in a comment to another user: “I think I’d distinguish between the integrity of the model and the good faith reasons for them using (which I don’t actually really question) and the macabre strangeness of it as this very explicit benchmark of ‘success’ that he articulates over and over as thousands of ppl die.”
Hayes’ comments came as more than 430,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S., with nearly 15,000 deaths.
As many parts of the U.S. brace for peaks, the death toll is projected to spike over coming weeks.
Hayes added in a separate tweet: “He made an I-used-to-sleep-with-models joke *IN THE MIDDLE* of describing the projections of hundreds of thousands of Americans dying.”
Hayes’ second tweet referenced a comment from Trump made last Friday when discussing projected coronavirus deaths.
“I want to come way under the models. The professionals did the models,” Trump said.
“I was never involved in a model. But—at least this kind of a model.”
Trump’s wife, First Lady Melania Trump, used to be a fashion model.
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