iStock/Andrei StanescuBY: EVAN MCMURRY, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Herman Cain’s Twitter account is still being maintained by a group of associates following Cain’s death from coronavirus complications — but some of the content is strikingly divergent from Cain’s experiences with the virus.
A tweet from the account that questioned the mortality rate of COVID-19 was apparently posted and deleted Sunday night — a morbid turn following the conservative businessman’s death after being hospitalized for the virus last month.
Several outlets posted screenshots of the Tweet, which linked to an article alleging that “it looks like the coronavirus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be.”
That story was in reference to a statistic from a weekly update by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listing 94% of COVID deaths as having co-morbidities.
The statistic is based on death certificates, which routinely include contributing factors, and experts say it is being misrepresented on social media. National and international public health agencies have long maintained that people with underlying health issues are more vulnerable to the virus.
More than 180,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
ABC News has reached out to those maintaining Cain’s Twitter account for comment.
Cain’s Twitter account went quiet in the wake of the one-time presidential candidate’s passing at the end of July, except for a few posts about memorial services, then reemerged in mid-August with a note from Cain’s daughter announcing that Cain had wanted his account to continue in his absence. Several writers said they were carrying on the account, claiming Cain’s blessing.
The account continued to tweet right-wing content at a quick clip, even after the revelation in early July that Cain had been hospitalized.
Just days before Cain’s announcement that he had been hospitalized for the coronavirus, his Twitter account, @TheHermanCain, tweeted a reference to President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July event at Mouth Rushmore, declaring, “Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”
Cain was briefly the front-runner in 2012 Republican presidential primary, and was considered by Trump for a role on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors before withdrawing from consideration in April.
His death was announced on Twitter on July 30. The announcement came 11 days after Cain’s appearance at Trump’s Tulsa rally, where he was pictured amid a group of other rally attendees without masks.
“There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus,” Cain’s team has said.
ABC News’ Erin Schumaker contributed to this report.
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