AMLO denies the Johns Hopkins lethality data. He claims “Fake news”

In the morning conference, López Obrador denied that Mexico is the country with the most lethality in Latin America. However, the data comes from Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Mexico is the country with the highest death rate per Covid-19 in Latin America. A region already considered the epicenter of the pandemic. The REFORMA newspaper reported today, Tuesday, May 26.

Mexico reports the highest proportion of deaths in the region, with a rate of 10.7 percent. This number is higher than in Brazil, which has the most significant number of deaths. 22,666 and registers a high number of infections: 363,211; this results in a 6.2 percent fatality rate, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Given the numbers presented by the American university, Lopez Obrador said it is a falsehood. “The newspaper REFORMA is competing with El Universal to see which is more sensationalist,” the president said, blaming Mexican newspapers for the numbers presented in the Johns Hopkins report. “Of course, it is not true what they (Reforma and El Universal) maintain, and there is a way to demonstrate it. What’s more, we have left it out because the comparisons are hateful, especially when it comes to the loss of human lives. They are very foolish. They confuse the differences we have of a political, ideological nature with these issues of the health of our people and the feelings of the people’s emotions, so they are bent on creating alarms and giving fake news.” (SIC)

Lopez Obrador continued with his ramble: “To say that Mexico is the first place of lethality in Latin America is a falsehood. The only thing I would recommend is that with data from the WHO we review how many deaths there have been in Latin American countries and what is the population of each of the Latin American countries, it is a relatively simple formula.” (SIC)

As usual, AMLO accused the newspapers of not being attached to the truth. In Trump’s style, he dismissed the information as “fake news.” He explained that the newspaper REFORMA is against his “fourth transformation. “I hope they change their minds because the truth is they attack us one day and then the other. Those notes have no attachment to the truth. It is all because of their anger. The transformation bothers them. They would like to maintain the same regime of corruption, injustices, privileges. However, we must understand that we are here because this is what the majority of Mexicans decided. We are carrying out a transformation that announced since the campaign. We said no more corruption, privileges, and everyone behaving well,” (SIC) he said.

“I don’t want to be always pointing to the Universal and the Reforma, I hope, and I call on you to put aside that attitude. If it is not, this is that. They believe I have bad faith, or I see them with evil eyes, I don’t have enemies, nor do I want to have them. However, as President of Mexico, I must inform the people, there is the right of the people to be informed. If I let a piece of false news go by and then another and another, is to live in confusion, in a rarefied world. That is not good, what happens when there is a pandemic like this, the fears, the fears are produced. We cannot be encouraging more worries, more scares, also lyes. Hopefully, there will be a change in attitude.

Earlier today, Undersecretary of health, Hugo Lopez Gatell, said that Mexico is overestimating mortality and that the country does not count the mild cases of the disease. “We are overestimating mortality in Mexico, something we are aware of,” said Lopez Gatell.