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After you get your COVID-19 vaccine, you can get freebies including free doughnuts, beer and more. USA TODAY

Nearly one-third of Americans have been fully vaccinatedagainst the coronavirus, and the daily death rate is falling.But on social media, misinformation about what counts as a COVID-19 death persists.

In a May 2 Instagram post,Bryson Gray, a rapper and conservative social media personality, published a screenshot of a tweet that makes it seem like the United States is overcounting coronavirus deaths.

Funny isnt it, if you die within 20 days of testing positive for the Rona (no matter what other factors were involved) Youll be counted as a COVID death, the tweet says. However, if you drop dead within 24 hours of taking the vaccine it has nothing to do with it.

The posts insinuation that coronavirus vaccines cause death is wrong and so is the claim about how COVID-19 deaths are counted.

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Local medical examiners, coroners and physicians decide whether COVID-19 contributed to someones death. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which maintains a tally of COVID-19 deaths, has guidance on how officials should fill out death certificates, but that guidance does not include a 20-day rule. False claims that the U.S. is padding coronavirus statistics have circulated since the early days of the pandemic.

USA TODAY reached out to Gray and the Twitter user who originally published the claim for comment.

The CDC guidance for how local officials should count COVID-19 deaths says nothing about including everyone who tests positive for the virus within a certain time frame.

The CDC gets dataon COVID-19 deaths through the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which gets its data from death certificates filed in state vital registration offices. When a local medical examiner, physician or coroner lists the coronavirus as a cause of death on a certificate, the CDC counts it as a COVID-19 death.

Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines dont cause death, wont decimate worlds population

When COVID-19 is reported as a cause of death or when it is listed as a probable or presumed cause the death is coded as U07.1, said Jasmine Reed, a public affairs specialist for the CDC, in an email to USA TODAY. This can include cases with or without laboratory confirmation.

In April 2020, the NCHS issued guidanceon how local officials should count COVID-19 deaths. That guidance, basedonwidely adopted recommendationsfrom the World Health Organization, says: If COVID-19 played a role in the death, this condition should be specified on the death certificate.

When determining whether COVID-19 played a role in the cause of death, follow the CDC clinical criteria for evaluating a person under investigation for COVID-19 and, where possible, conduct appropriate laboratory testing using guidance provided by CDC or local health authorities, the document says.

Medical workers test a local resident at a drive-thru coronavirus testing site in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 1, 2020.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)

That guidance, as well as the CDCs overview of testing for COVID-19,says nothing about a 20-day rule for counting coronavirus deaths. USA TODAY and other fact-checkerscould find no evidence such a rule exists.

The 20-day figure in the Instagram post may stem from what the CDC has said about the contagiousness of coronavirus for certain groups of people.

Adults with more severe illness or who are immunocompromised may remain infectious up to 20 days or longer after symptom onset, so a test-based strategy could be considered in consultation with infectious disease experts for these people, the agency says on its website.

Allegations that the U.S. is overcounting COVID-19 deaths arent new they've spread on social media and in Washington since the pandemic began.

In June, USA TODAY fact-checked false claimsthat the CDC was adding influenza and pneumonia to its COVID-19 death tally to make the pandemic seem worse than it was. The misinformation continued in the fall, when former President Donald Trump falselyclaimedthe U.S. was counting deaths that shouldnt have been attributed to COVID-19. Conspiracy theories that the CDC was intentionally inflating coronavirus deaths reemerged in February.

More: Biden wants 70% of US adults to be jabbed at least once by July 4

The notion that the U.S. is overcounting COVID-19 deaths doesnt hold water. In fact, public health officials haverepeatedlysaidtheir tallies are likely an undercountbecause of factors like false negatives on tests and people who have died at home without being diagnosed with COVID-19.

The claim that anyone who dies within 20 days of testing positive for COVID-19 automatically counts as a COVID-19 death is FALSE, based on our research. Whether COVID-19 contributed to someones death is left up to the judgment of local medical examiners, physicians and coroners. There is no rule that people who die within 20 days of receiving a positive COVID-19 diagnosis are automatically added to the pandemics death tally.

Nurses struggling to take vital signs. Anguished faces on iPad screens. A chaplain praying with a patient. These are the scenes playing out daily inside of a COVID-19 ICU. USA TODAY

National Center for Health Statistics, accessed May 4, COVID-19 Death Data and Resources

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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