Nearly one-third of Americans said they think the real death toll attributed to the coronavirus pandemic is lower than official counts reported in mid-July, a new Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index poll shows.
The poll is conducted weekly. These results are from the 17th wave of the poll, conducted July 17-20, and include responses from 1,037 U.S. adults.
Thirty-one percent of the respondents said that they believe the actual COVID-19 death toll is less than the 135,000 deaths officially reported in the middle of July. A similar question asked in a poll conducted in early May showed only 23 percent believed the real death count was lower than the reported official count.
The notion that official counts are inflating the real death count is more popular among Republicans than Democrats. About 59 percent of Republicans say that the real number of deaths is less than the official count, while about 61 percent of Democrats say that real death count is higher than official counts.
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