Forty-five percent of people who frequently watch Fox News say that fewer Americans have been killed by the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 than the official count indicates, according to a new poll.

Fox personalities and other conservative media figures have tried to defend President Donald Trump from criticism that he botched the federal response to the coronavirus by offering the ghoulish and absurd argument that the COVID-19 death toll is “inflated” because it includes people who died with preexisting conditions shared by many Americans.

In fact, the official figure -- which currently stands at more than 22,000 U.S. deaths -- is almost certainly an undercount. It does not include many cases, particularly home-deaths, involving people who likely died of the virus but were never tested.

Forty-two percent of respondents say that more people have died from coronavirus than the official count, according to a new Daily Kos/Civiqs poll conducted April 11-14. By contrast, 24% say that fewer have died than the official count, and only 16% say the official count is accurate.

Those numbers change dramatically, however, depending on how much Fox the respondents say they watch.