If you don't come out of this seriously questioning at least one of your priors, I'm going to assume you just don't do much critical thinking.

Let me think... which priors do I now question:

1) I'm much more skeptical of numbers. They almost necessarily represent an incomplete story about whatever they are trying to describe.

2) I'm *very* skeptical of any reporter using data or numbers or any scientific concept for which they have no foundation. If you've been on the "genetics beat" for a couple years, sure, you can probably talk about genetics. Otherwise, your writing is just going to be gibberish.

3) I'm more likely to ask people "on the ground" what is going on. I assumed Seattle hospitals would get slammed & for a while I assumed they were getting slammed. I had to talk to doctors and nurses to discover they were not.