Photos of the deceased are displayed on August 31, 2020, at a public memorial honoring the 5,700 Los Angeles County residents who have died due to Covid-19. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

Faulty causal thinking may be driving death toll doubt.

As the US Covid-19 death toll continues to rise (more than 183,000 as of September 1), so has the number of people who believe that the official death count is vastly inflated.

According to a July Axios-Ipsos poll, almost one in three people surveyed in the US thought the number of Covid-19 deaths was lower than what was being reported.

Some of the high-profile death skeptics, like author Alex Berenson, believe the media is deliberately sensationalizing deaths. Others note that many of these people were older and might have died during the same period anyway.

Serious question. What