Context: People continue to spread this false claim citing this table—which does not include deaths from most of January—and comparing this figure with past years' complete number. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm

From the NCHS Mortality Surveillance Data, you can see all deaths recorded for 2020, which are ALREADY HIGHER than ever recorded with a month to spare and incomplete data for recent weeks. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/12112020/nchs-mortality-report.html

And the "incomplete" caveat is important. CDC's numbers are based on statistics forwarded from local jurisdictions, which takes time. When the numbers are final, there will be perhaps 400,000 more deaths this calendar year than 2019. https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1337461126481764357

This false tweet was RT'd by @AdamBaldwin (350k followers), @IWV (223k), @kylenabecker (145k), @amritabhinder (142k), @kelliwardaz (116k), @MichaelBerrySho (73k), @talzlami (66k), @rhowardbrowne (54k), @RobManess (50k) & another version posted by @drdavidsamadi (374k) + more RTs.

And that's before counting favorable QT's by a bunch of people who should know better, like @Rasmussen_Poll (362k), @Harlan (184k) @JLMarchese111 (174k) & @JoeSquawk (148k), weird screenshots, tons more copycats. https://twitter.com/search?q=%222011%3A%202.5M%22&src=typed_query&f=live

Point is: Comfortable errors spread well.