ICYMI Fact Checker Calls Out Cooper For Spreading False COVID-19 Information

September 3, 2020
For Immediate Release

Raleigh, NC - NC Politifact called out Governor Cooper for spreading false information about COVID-19 deaths. Cooper accomplished almost nothing during his first term and is running for reelection on his failed COVID-19 response because he has nothing else to run on despite his three decades in office.  

“It is beneath the office of Governor to resort to spreading false information about the pandemic to juice his reelection efforts,” said NCGOP Press Secretary Tim Wigginton.“Cooper’s decisions to lie about the drivers of  COVID-19 deaths shows that he’s using political science to guide his COVID-19 response in a vain attempt to help his reelection, and North Carolinians are paying the price for his public relations stunts.” 

Key excerpts from the Fact Check:

While that may be a noble cause, Republicans are questioning a claim he made during a recent briefing.

“In some of these other states, some of their deaths can be attributable to the fact that they were having a hard time getting an ICU bed or a ventilator to a patient,” Cooper said during a press conference on Aug. 13.

But there’s little documentation of COVID-19 patients dying specifically because they couldn’t access a ventilator or ICU bed.

PolitiFact investigated the issue of ventilator access, finding in late April that it hadn’t become the nationwide problem health experts and medical professionals feared. Officials from 30 states told PolitiFact that they weren’t aware of any cases where their hospitals couldn’t provide ventilators to COVID-19 patients.

The American Hospital Association, along with experts who have tracked resource availability during the pandemic, say they’re unaware of any specific cases where someone died specifically because they couldn’t access a ventilator or ICU bed. Cooper didn't cite, and PolitiFact couldn't find enough evidence to support the claim.

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