Analysing Bad Reporting

This is in reference to an article on notorious (Russian-funded) Zero Hodge (misspelled on purpose).

It is called COVID-19 – Evidence Over Hysteria – you can find it, I won’t link to it.

Very early on in the article it says “When 13% of Americans believe they are currently infected with COVID-19 (mathematically impossible), full-on panic is blocking our ability to think clearly and determine how to deploy our resources to stop this virus.”

If you follow the link, the article starts by saying:

1 in 10 adults believe they have coronavirus right now

But in their actual results the question was Are you afraid you might have coronavirus right now? That’s a very different thing!

And the StudyFinds.org survey was conducted online via SurveyMonkey. (a free online survey tool). Sounds like sophisticated research!

Once you have evidence of unreliable reporting, you can judge the rest of it accordingly.

Now, most of the data is accurate, but there are two issues. They have solely chosen data that makes things look not so bad, like saying there is only a 1-5% chance you will catch it (as opposed to studies that say if drastic measures are not taken, most of us will catch it). And comparing it to the flu, yawn…

And they have misinterpreted it. They say being on the same curve as other countries is irrelevant, because the infections per capita is lower. That only becomes irrelevant once the curve flattens – which the US is far from – and if you don’t consider the rate of testing, in which the US is one of the worst.

Most scientists would see that America has a good chance of being the worst affected, both in total casualties and per capita.

Yet the author says it makes no sense to close any schools or businesses, and not ban public gatherings.

 

 

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