Something I learned in Radio a loooong time ago… you can make numbers say anything you want
Commentary By Doug Badger and Amy Anderson, DNP, RN
What’s the No. 1 coronavirus hot spot in America?
Is it Los Angeles County, which led the nation with nearly 200,000 confirmed cases on Aug. 2, according to Johns Hopkins University? Is it Miami-Dade County, Florida, which ranked second with more than 121,000 cases? Or is it Houston/Harris County, Texas, where nearly 75,000 cases have been recorded?
The answer, according to a recently leaked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document: Columbia County, Florida.
If you’ve never heard of Columbia County, you’re not alone. It’s as obscure as most of the other COVID-19 hot spots identified in the CDC document, as reported in a Yahoo News story headlined “Nine of the Top 10 U.S. Coronavirus Hot Spots Are in Florida and Texas.”
A closer look at those so-called “hot spots” shows how public health officials too often use statistics to misinform the public about the COVID-19 pandemic.
By presenting a distorted view, those officials have sown confusion and undermined their own credibility with tens of millions of Americans.
