This is the problem. The coronavirus stats should be coming from the federal government, not the networks and universities. Since they aren’t federal, that makes it easier for right wing extremists to question them.
Are conronavirus stats reliable?
Tucker Carlson suggested Tuesday that the coronavirus death toll may be inflated, because pneumonia deaths are being wrongly attributed to covid-19.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) April 8, 2020
The data he cited don't support that, though.https://t.co/g7ct4M65fQ
The battle to prevent Americans from understanding what went down January to April is going to be one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in modern US history. https://t.co/Ggf3vFZXcC Data erasure and the manufacture of mass confusion have already begun.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 5, 2020
Pro-Trumpers now arguing it's somehow wrong to attribute deaths to COVID if the deceased suffered other health troubles too.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 8, 2020
By this logic, we could reduce the tally of gun deaths. Yes, the victim was hit by a bullet. But she might have bled less if not for her hypertension!
A horrific reason Trump may not be eager to get more people tested:
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) April 5, 2020
More testing would help us cope with COVID-19 — but at the cost of revealing a higher death toll from the disease Trump did far too little too late to contain and then mitigatehttps://t.co/Naa8sg7NvJ
We have no idea how many Americans have had coronavirus since the outbreak began. We have no idea how many Americans have coronavirus right now, today, at the moment you read this. And we’re not sure how many Americans the coronavirus has killed so far https://t.co/sEPNqDE8mL
— Mark Berman (@markberman) April 5, 2020
Paraphrasing @RadioFreeTom’s “The Death of Expertise”: We have reached a point where ignorance is an actual virtue. To reject advice of experts is to assert autonomy. It is a new Declaration of Independence: we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true. https://t.co/TYxcGsDOhI
— David Goodman (@DavidAGoodman) April 4, 2020
The Trump infused right wing is now going all in on pandemic trutherism. These people are so fucking vile https://t.co/neXnURZztF
— Daniel Gilmore (@gilmored85) March 30, 2020
Diamond & Silk are speculating coronavirus deaths are being inflated to make Trump look bad pic.twitter.com/hBnB7422UP
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 30, 2020
Get ready for an incredibly ghoulish push by Trumpist media to question the number of deaths attributed to coronavirus in order to make the president look good. pic.twitter.com/CLlRgOJYLY
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 31, 2020
This has already started. How do I know? Because Trump surrogates are accusing Trump’s opponents of screwing with the coronavirus fatality numbers, and Trumpers ALWAYS falsely accuse others of whatever misconduct they plan to do THEMSELVES. Always. #projection #COVID19 1/ https://t.co/5fdiIOak5F
— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 (@jennycohn1) March 31, 2020
Spain, Italy, Germany, Singapore publish daily, data-rich epi updates. In the US, situational awareness is largely courtesy of volunteer projects and 50 state health dept websites. We must modernize our surveillance and reporting infrastructure to be able to respond effectively.
— Caitlin Rivers, PhD (@cmyeaton) April 1, 2020
I’m not sure that counts as “inflated.” If someone with another condition dies because of Coronavirus-caused complications, that should qualify, imo. In other words, if a person dies, who would still be alive if not for Coronavirus, that’s a Coronavirus death. Disagree?
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 1, 2020
Limbaugh theorized “that with this new arrival of COVID-19, that coronavirus is being listed as a cause of death for many people who are not dying because of it.”
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 3, 2020
“They’re dying because of other things,” he added. “But it’s speculation. It’s fascinating.” https://t.co/dw1OTQfWCQ
That’s what happens when you don’t have one consistent source of data – people question it.
Dr. Deborah Birx said WH coronavirus task force is missing 50% of the data for coronavirus tests that have been conducted. https://t.co/o5LxAuHc56
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 3, 2020
The stats I’d most like to see for states/countries/whatever are:
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 3, 2020
(1) Cases per capita
(2) Percentage growth rate
I don’t love trying to eyeball the slope on log charts of raw case counts.
Florida has emerged as a test case of what happens when officials use guesswork against a highly contagious virus -> https://t.co/5cW4DnHOxf
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 5, 2020
Normally in NYC 20-25 people die at home each day.
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 5, 2020
We are now at 200-215. Every day.
For sure nearly all the increase is people w/ coronavirus. But not all are being counted that way.
One reason that the official NYC covid death count–already high–is certainly an undercount.
Fwiw, I think we’ll eventually learn that we’re significantly undercounting the deaths right now. https://t.co/Kefb1tzHjr
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) April 8, 2020
Sad! 