The claim: 901 people died of COVID-19 in Florida on Aug. 26
Throughout the pandemic, data on hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 has helped the public understand the severity of the crisis. But it has also led to some confusion on social media.
On Aug. 26, local news outlets in Florida reported that the state’s cumulative COVID-19 death count had increased by 901. On Facebook, some took that to mean that number of Floridians had succumbed to the virus in one day.
“900 Americans died yesterday. Not in Afghanistan. In Florida. Who else blames Republican governors for COVID surges?” read an Aug. 30 post from Facebook page Call to Activism, which was shared more than 10,000 times but was later corrected.
