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My mom called me, freaking out about the "100% positive rate" that ABC News was reporting out of Florida in case you're wondering why I get so frustrated.
Newsrooms should know by now.
They should have an even-keeled data person that they run every report past who can say "nah, that seems pretty unlikely. I would just hold onto that while we wait to see what actually happened."
They should have an even-keeled data person that they run every report past who can say "nah, that seems pretty unlikely. I would just hold onto that while we wait to see what actually happened."
A couple weeks ago, someone pinged me and asked why Florida suddenly had thousands of excess deaths in a single week in the CDC's excess death data
I looked at it and said "That looks like someone made a data mistake"
Here's how ABC News reported it
I looked at it and said "That looks like someone made a data mistake"
Here's how ABC News reported it
But guess what!
It was a data mistake.
If you go to the CDC's excess deaths website and look at the 2020 excess deaths, and 2020 is very much in line with previous years when you account for official COVID deaths.
It was a data mistake.
If you go to the CDC's excess deaths website and look at the 2020 excess deaths, and 2020 is very much in line with previous years when you account for official COVID deaths.
ABC news should never have run that story.
The reporters and producers simply do not have enough understanding of what is going on to competently report on this data. They should have someone to pull them back and say "that doesn't look like good data, maybe stop"
The reporters and producers simply do not have enough understanding of what is going on to competently report on this data. They should have someone to pull them back and say "that doesn't look like good data, maybe stop"
