"A misleading claim that "only" 17,000 people in England and Wales have died of Covid has been circulating online. The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) has stepped in to correct the record - but not before the false claim went viral.

"It has become a weapon of the cruel and heartless to dismiss the deaths of the people we love."

Matt Fowler lost his dad to Covid-19 in April 2020. Ian Fowler was 56 at the time of his death, and lived with type 2 diabetes - which his son said had a "minor, barely perceptible impact on his life that he controlled with his diet".

But the suggestion that "only" 17,000 people in England and Wales have died of Covid - a figure arrived at by removing from the data anyone with a pre-existing health condition - completely discounts the deaths of people like Ian."

Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60145237

Posting misinformation is a wicked thing.