Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is facing criticism after falsely claiming that suicide deaths have outpaced coronavirus fatalities in recent months.
'More suicide deaths than coronavirus deaths last two months,' Brady wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. 'So wash your hands and wear your masks but don't forget to be nice to people and look after yourself.'
Brady's post was marked with a label reading 'TRUTH' -- but experts say that there is no way that claim is accurate.
While suicide rates are believed to be rising under the stress and economic misery of lockdowns, data from 2018 shows that an average of 4,028 Americans died of suicide each month.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is facing criticism after falsely claiming that suicide deaths have outpaced coronavirus fatalities in recent months
Brady wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday that suicides were outpacing coronavirus deaths
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26,407 people died of COVID-19 in the four weeks ending August 29, and 16,442 in the four weeks ending September 26.
Suicide expert Dr. Jonathan Singer, president of the American Association of Suicidology, said that Brady's claim strains credulity.
'There's no way this can be true,' Singer told PolitiFact. 'For this to be right, you would need a rise in the suicide rate that is just impossible.'
PolitiFact rated Brady's claim as flatly false.
However, Singer did note that suicide data, collected nationally and released on an annual basis, is not recent enough to determine whether suicides are on the rise in the pandemic.
'Reporters ask us what is the effect of the coronavirus on suicides, and we don't know,' Singer said. 'Because we don't have the data.'
Brady's claim echos statements made by President Donald Trump, who has raised concerns that lockdowns will raise the rate of suicides and drug overdoses.
'You're going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression,' Trump said in March during a town hall. 'You're going to lose people. You're going to have suicides by the thousands.'
In 2018, there were 48,344 recorded suicides in the U.S. and 67,367 drug overdose deaths.
So far this year, more than 220,000 deaths have been attributed to coronavirus in the U.S.
If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, available to anyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.