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Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, claimed that COVID mortality rates had been as high as 50% during a podcast appearance, using the figure as a rationale for the response she had called for in the early days of the 2020 pandemic.
Acton highlighted the figure as evidence of her effective leadership as Director of the Ohio Department of Health on a podcast appearance this past September.
“In those early days, the mortality rate was 50%. I started with that in March. By June, when we reopened, it was because we took swift, decisive action. The mortality rate had gone down to 5%. We learned how to save lives,” Acton said.
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton speaks at a primary election night campaign event after winning the party’s nomination for governor in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (Jay LaPrete/AP Photo)
Acton’s retelling of the pandemic’s lethality comes as she defends her record as health director and amid an uphill bid to become the next governor of the Buckeye State.
COVID-19’s mortality rate was well below the 50% Acton described, resulting in 275,000 deaths nationwide in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Of patients who contracted the virus, the death rate was just 15.9% when adjusted for age. And, when filtered further for when COVID was the cause of death, that figure fell further to 11.3%.
When asked about the figure, Acton’s office said she had been referring to death rates in hospitals.
She also bashed Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of Roivant Sciences, a biotech pharmaceutical company that helped produce COVID treatments.
“While Dr. Acton was working hand in hand with Governor DeWine to keep Ohioans safe, Vivek Ramaswamy was calling for mandatory COVID-19 testing, making more than $2 billion off of the COVID vaccine, and recommending segregating Ohioans based on biomarker status,” Addie Bullock, a spokesperson for Acton’s campaign, said.
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DES MOINES, IOWA – JANUARY 15: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at his caucus night event at the Surety Hotel on January 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowans voted today in the state’s caucuses for the first contest in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating process. Ramaswamy announced he was dropping out of the race. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In the past, Acton has received Republican criticism for pushing Ohio’s COVID response too far. Acton has countered by arguing that her leadership, alongside Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, had been effective.
“I had quarantine power … we were the very first to take action,” Acton said on the podcast.
A Ramaswamy spokesperson fired back at Acton, telling Digital that she was “spewing lies” on COVID-19.
“Liberal Amy Acton is desperately trying to rewrite history, spewing lies in a futile attempt to justify her disastrous decision-making during COVID,” Connie Luck said. “But her outrageous claims only confirm what we already know: she’s an incompetent, failed government bureaucrat who ran our state into the ground and is wholly unqualified to lead Ohio.”
With Acton’s advice, Ohio was one of the first states to impose broad emergency restrictions, becoming the first state to shut down schools on March 16, issuing stay-at-home orders, closed polling places and limited public gatherings of 50 and then 100 people.
In those early days, Acton once overestimated the number of people in Ohio with COVID, asserting in March 2020 that the figure was 100,000, only to walk back the claim a few days later and state that she had been “guesstimating.” Also in March, Acton claimed that Ohio could see as many as 10,000 new cases a day at a press conference with DeWine.
For his own part, DeWine has defended Acton from criticisms, stating that it was ultimately his decision on which closures to enact and called Acton’s counsel “superb” in comments to local media.
Later, Acton split with the governor’s office. In particular, Acton disagreed with allowing county fairs, citing fears that the events would risk renewed spread of the virus. She also didn’t see eye to eye with which groups entered into partnerships with the state.
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Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, meets with local residents while campaigning at Bottoms Up Coffee in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, April 6, 2026. (Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“I stepped down because I would not sign orders that were being forced on me. I stepped down in June because they began to make COVID, like everything else in the state house, political, giving special interests and certain businesses advantage over other businesses,” Acton said.
Having cleared the Ohio primaries and secured the Democratic nomination, Acton will face off against Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 general election later this year.
