How media and government reports of coronavirus cases make the pandemic look worse than it is – IOTW Report

How media and government reports of coronavirus cases make the pandemic look worse than it is

Just the News: ‘How many have recovered from the disease?’ is a critical question few are asking.

Much of the media over the past six months have been devoted ceaselessly to coronavirus coverage, starting with its spread in China, through Asia, into the Middle East and Europe, and into the Americas.

Since the pandemic began in earnest in the United States, seemingly the vast majority of major news reports has been about some aspect of the pandemic: How many are hospitalized, how many have died, what businesses are open, and who’s wearing a mask. 

In few areas has the coverage been more frenetic than in counting the number of COVID-19 cases throughout the country. Those statistics, which have been supported by aggressive government tabulation of infection rates, have been broadcast from virtually every news outlet for months.

The headlines normally run along these lines: “COVID-19 cases top 40,000 statewide;”  “Georgia reports more than 45K COVID-19 cases;” “California becomes 4th state with more than 100,000 coronavirus cases;” “Michigan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases up to 55,608.”

Those numbers generally come from specific state’s health department, which gathers data from testing sites in cities and counties and reports them in a cumulative batch on Internet “dashboards” for the benefit of both the media and state residents.

It is a useful and necessary way to measure one aspect of the pandemic, but it is also strikingly flawed by one critical measure: It fails to distinguish between confirmed cases and active cases, instead implicitly treating the two as equivalent. The average citizen who sees a headline declaring “100,000 coronavirus cases” may very well interpret those numbers in the worst way possible, believing that there are actively 100,000 people sick with coronavirus in his state.  read more


4 Comments on How media and government reports of coronavirus cases make the pandemic look worse than it is

  1. It doesn’t even matter what the number is – they just put it up in huge numbers and tell you it’s scary, and people comply.
    Total COVID deaths now = 0.03% of US population, massively weighted toward those with health issues.
    Normal monthly deaths = 0.10% of US population, massively weighted toward those with health issues. (simple math based upon 80+ year lifespan)
    What am I missing here?

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  2. They’ve inflated the numbers via double counting, classifying every death of someone who has died with the virus as caused by the virus even suicide or homicide victims and are now using ‘probable’ cases. Total nonsense.

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