Posted on 04/18/2020 4:45:28 PM PDT by Widget Jr
Did new intelligence data reveal that 21 million people died in China from December 2019 to March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus? No, that's not true: An online article being shared uses a statistic about a drop in cellphone users to make a faulty supposition that this figure reflects COVID-19 deaths in China. These numbers are not correlated, fact checkers have previously shown.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by News NT on April 4, 2020, under the headline "21 million Chinese died of coronavirus - US intelligence officials intercept data." It opened:
"A new data intercepted by the United States reveals that 21 million people died in China from December 2019 to March 2020, US intelligence officials conclude in a classified report for the Trump administration."
"The Intelligence report stated that at least 20.9 million of the deaths were linked to coronavirus."
"According to the US, the intercepted data that shows that China underreported its coronavirus infections and deaths was validated for a second time when it tallied with a data released by Beijing authorities. Beijing announced on March 19 that over 21 million cellphone accounts in China were canceled in the past three months while 840,000 landlines were closed."
"China had reported little over 81,000 infections with 3,300 deaths."
Even though the original link for the report is down, the archived item has gone viral. On April 13, 2020, the site republished the story using a different URL.
The article has also been copied word-for-word by other sites, including one that only changed the name of the "author" from James Alami to Alavi.
The original story mentioned that an intelligence report concluded that China has deliberately underreported the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country. While it's true that a new report does suggest China's official figures are false, the News NT story incorrectly linked that reporting to a separate one about cellphone cancellations.
The result is a sweeping assumption that misinterpreted why millions of cellphones were canceled.
...
News NT is a relatively new player online; its domain name was only registered a month ago. A subheadline written in Vietnamese in the republished English-language article suggests the site originates from that Southeast Asian country.
Lead Stories reviewed its content and noticed a mix of real and fake stories. For example, there's an article that stated the Thai king has tested positive for coronavirus in Germany. It's true he was self-quarantining in Germany, but there is no reporting that he had come down with the new coronavirus.
U.S. intelligence services do not leak classified reports given to the President of the United States. They do not leak to low traffic websites, our sites who's majority web traffic is not even in this hemisphere.
The Ministry of Public Health in Guyana also called out News NT (n5ti.com) for publishing a fake story on their facebook page.
N51ti.com is between the Santa Monica Observer and Debka.
People were dropping dead in the streets , BBC had video
It seems to have been developed to discredit conservative sources.
It has a lot of former CNN people in it.
Wouldn’t surprise me the least bit if the death toll was in the millions.
After all, it is the CCP.
My good FRiends...
...you need look no farther.
.
“People were dropping dead in the streets , BBC had video”
Why aren’t people dropping dead in the streets here?
That’s all we need to know about this sh!t.
Haha....you have got to be kidding. Whoever has been alive during the intel agencies plots to impeach Trump knows they leak like baby diapers to further their narratives.
Wow... really deadly virus guys. Can’t even kill 21 million Chinese.
Guess its not that deadly
I really question the 21m. I can easily believe 1-3m, but 21 m creates a unbelievable scenario. There must be a better explanation of the cell phone issue.
Oh and burning 21m bodies in 8-10 weeks is a logistical challenge..
I really question the 21m. I can easily believe 1-3m, but 21 m creates a unbelievable scenario. There must be a better explanation of the cell phone issue.
Oh and burning 21m bodies in 8-10 weeks is a logistical challenge..
China under reported COVID-19 deaths.
The problem for us is that the very same virus that killed millions in China is running rampant in the United States.
Even China couldn’t hide 21 million dead...
How about an information crackdown? 21 million cell phone accounts canceled because they were considered politically unreliable in a national emergency.
Not hard for the CCP to do.
Ryan Cooper, a staff writer and fact-checker for Lead Stories, is the former Director of Programming at CNN International, where he helped shape the network’s daily newscasts broadcast to more than 280 million households around the world. He was based at the network’s Los Angeles Bureau. There, he managed the team responsible for a three-hour nightly program, Newsroom LA.
Old data didn’t reveal 21 million dead either.
Chinese work several jobs each with a cellphone
Businesses closing equals dropped phone accounts. There were discussions on this at the time.
F-the left. They even destroyed “fact checking”! If it weren’t so funny,I would cry.
Lots of people are emotionally invested in 21 million dead. It’s how they can personally justify being so wrong about this virus.
Thank you for your honest reporting.
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