An exasperated Dr. Anthony Fauci, not one to hide his emotions, lashed out on Wednesday at conspiracy theorists who contend that COVID-19 death totals are being trumped up to blame the virus for causing deaths due to other issues.
"You will always have conspiracy theories when you have very challenging public health crises," Dr. Fauci told reporters at Wednesday's coronavirus task force daily briefing. "They are nothing but distractions.
"I can assure you, we have so much to do to protect the health and the welfare of the American people that I would just hope we just put those conspiracy [theories] stuff, and let somebody write a book about it later on, but not now."
The coronavirus task force said Tuesday there are many cases in which a fatality is the result of a number of co-morbidities, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and asthma, but Dr. Deborah Birx said the COVID-19 infection makes all of those more acute.
The data in Italy has shown the majority of COVID-19 deaths there have had three or more co-morbidities, according to Dr. Birx.