Daniel Payne @ Just The News:
Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, state governments and media outlets continue to publicize confusing, misleading data on the spread of the disease here, perpetuating fears that deaths from the virus are skyrocketing on a daily basis even as those fatalities are generally distributed across a period of days, weeks or even months.
At issue is how state health departments publicize daily reports of fatalities within the state’s borders. State health officials have for months been publishing two sets of mortality statistics: deaths that occurred on the publication date in question, and deaths that have only recently been catalogued from state backlogs.
The Arizona Department of Health Services publishes both of those figures on its coronavirus dashboard: On its “Summary” page, it lists the “number of new deaths reported today,” while on its “Covid-19 Deaths” tab, the state lists the actual “deaths by date of death.”
The distinction is a critical one: The state’s “new deaths” every day do not actually reflect the number of coronavirus fatalities Arizona has logged in the past 24 hours, but rather the number of COVID-19 deaths it has identified from both new and older death certificates.
Health department spokeswoman Holly Poynter confirmed to Just the News on Friday that the state’s “new deaths” figure is not drawn exclusively from the most recent 24-hour period of fatalities.
“While we had 91 new deaths reported today, the graph [on the dashboard] shows them by the actual date of death,” she said on Friday. “Although those 91 were reported today, it doesn’t mean today was the date of death. Those deaths may have occurred at any time on the graph but were simply reported today.”
She added that the state’s graph “gets updated every day with the new deaths by actual date of death.” Poynter did not respond when asked if there was a way to see the date distribution from each day’s new report of deaths.
The daily new death report often generates misleading sensationalist reports throughout the media. On July 7, for instance, the state recorded 117 “new deaths” on its dashboard. Calling that number a “record,” CNN reported that Arizona that day reported “117 deaths from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours.” Business Insider reported that Arizona recorded “its highest number of newly reported coronavirus deaths” on that day. News Break said the state on that date “recorded its highest single-day death toll.”
Yet actual state data as of Saturday indicated that only 53 people are so far recorded as dying in the 24-hour period in question, 54% less than the “record” day touted in numerous headlines. Indeed, going by date of death, the most fatalities the state has ever recorded over 24 hours is 57, on June 30.
Florida Department of Health publicizes one number, quietly reports the other
A similar problem was seen in Florida this week, when the state health department on Thursday announced 156 deaths in one 24-hour period. That number was touted as a frightening new record by media outlets such as CNN, the Miami Herald, NBC, the Orlando Sentinel, and numerous others.
Yet as of Saturday aftenroon, the actual number of deaths confirmed for that 24-hour period, per the state’s dashboard, was just 58—roughly one-third the “record” that the state health department touted on its website.
The department on its website notes that “death data often has significant delays in reporting, so data within the past two weeks will be updated frequently.” Indeed, the death counts have risen on the state’s dashboard since Thursday, though only moderately so.
Yet attempts to resolve the gap between the state’s 156 reported deaths on Thursday and the much lower number on the state’s dashboard resulted in a strange, almost incomprehensible exchange with a nameless representative of the agency.
Asked about the difference between what the Florida health department posted in its press release and what it reported on its dashboard, the official responded: “There was a technical issue on the Florida Department of Health dashboard this morning causing incorrect data to be displayed. The Department has diagnosed and fixed the issue. The numbers on the dashboard are now correct.”
I don’t think we can rely on any of the data being produced. Too much politics and anti-Trump motivation is involved.
Truth has become anti-Trump because Trump’s control depends on lies.
@Greg: You avoid the truth. You have no use for it.
@Greg:
Say’s the Marxist faction that controls media, entertainment, and education…with lies.
Accuse Trump of doing what you are doing…see if it sticks!
Less and less are buying this cheap propaganda trick, bud.
Trump lies constantly. Trump has lied thousands of times during his campaign and his presidency. Literally. He has lied regarding matters both irrelevant and enormously consequential. He generally says whatever he believes will best serve him at the moment, even if it directly contradicts something that he has said before. He bullies and defames anyone who contradicts him. All indications are that he has always done this. That is a demonstrable truth, documented so thoroughly and so often that to deny it calls one’s own truthfulness and/or reason into question. That’s how it looks from my own perspective, at any rate.
Over 140,000 Americans have died owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is a reality. The situation in the United States is worsening, in large part because of a continuous campaign of disinformation and denial by irresponsible people who should know better. That is also a reality. This is one issue where understanding what’s true and false really matters.
Just 2 democrat states account for 1/3 of all the deaths in the United States thats a fact. Seems their long long lock downs didnt work.
If you want to bleet the same old meme have at it but if you want to present facts and evidence you need to dig deeper than your boob tube.
@kitt, #5:
The counts of new deaths yesterday were 8 in New York and 0 in California. Texas reported 93 new deaths and Florida reported 87, with rapid rises in new cases in both states.
More stringent measures clearly did work. Less stringent measures and earlier reopenings have had the opposite effect. Denial has consequences.
July 20, 2020 – Texas Doctor Says Wave Of COVID-19 Cases Hit ‘Like A Tsunami’