{"id":339,"date":"2020-05-13T16:47:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T23:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reallycorrect.com\/ReallyCorrectWp1\/?page_id=339"},"modified":"2021-06-08T09:53:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T16:53:39","slug":"covid-19-daily-reporting-is-misleading","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/reallycorrect.com\/ReallyCorrectWp1\/covid-19-daily-reporting-is-misleading\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Daily Reporting Is Misleading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Several sites including worldometer, CDC, and others report “Headline Totals” data which is misleading and non-informative for general public decision making<\/a>.<\/strong>

First, establishing a baseline, the 2017-2018 flu season had an estimated 61,099 fatalities with 3,446 of those under 50 years old<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 9\/9\/2020, the CDC reports a total of 175,866 COVID deaths<\/strong> in the US.

But looking deeper beyond the surface reporting, it can be found that:<\/a>
The total deaths for the population under 50 years old is 8877<\/strong> (5.0% of COVID total and about 2.6 times that of 2018 flu season)
The total deaths for the population over 84 years old is 54,838 <\/strong>(31.2% of total)
The total deaths for the population over 74 years old is 101,325<\/strong> (57.6% of total)
The US life expectancy<\/strong> for those 75 years old in 2017 was to live until 87 years old<\/strong>

And it is important to realize that most of the deaths attributed to COVID are related to non-COVID health concerns<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID looks to be about 3 times worse than the 2017-2018 flu season.<\/em><\/strong> But that may be exaggerated because COVID fatalities have been exaggerated<\/a>. It appears that the exercise of halting the economy, limiting freedom to enjoy healthy outdoor areas<\/a>, and intensely watching media coverage of COVID deaths multiple times per day has significantly been a morbid fascination in observing people beyond average life expectancy pass-on. About 30% of the deaths attributed to COVID were of those who were about to leave us even without COVID.<\/strong> Most of the economic challenges and resulting secondary effects could have been averted using good Safety Protocols<\/a> while keeping the economy largely intact. Sadly, even with complete “lockdowns”, many deaths were not preventable. A better plan would have lowered severe cases and death counts and had almost no negative impact to the economy.<\/a> In short, providing education, using safety protocols, increasing indoors ventilation, and wearing masks indoors could have averted major economic impact and protected the vulnerable..

In most local reporting, any breakdown of deaths and cases does not present commentary that includes co-morbidity information, general health status prior to COVID<\/a>, and case severity data that is critical to make the data useful for personal decisions and public policy.

The following sections document additional ways in which COVID data is presented inaccurately or in a manner that results in misinformed perspectives.<\/em><\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Cases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The name Total Cases<\/strong> is misleading. It leads one to believe that this is the number of Total Infections. It is not. It is the Total REPORTED<\/em> Cases CONFIRMED BY A PCR VIRAL PRESENCE NASAL \/ THROAT MUCOSAL SWAB TEST POSITIVE RESULT<\/em>. It is not the real number of Total Infections.

Not everyone with symptoms is tested, especially true before mid-late April when test availability increased significantly. Even now, there are people without access or people who do not want to be tested who avoid testing and treat their case of COVID-19 like they do any other sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 to 27 Million<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On June 25, 2020, CDC director Robert Redfield reported that somewhere on the order of 16 to 27 million of the US population has been infected (5% to 8%).<\/strong> The vast majority of these infections are not currently active – they were people who recovered weeks and months ago.
“But all in all, I think you\u2019re in the right range, that somewhere between 5%, 6%, 7%, 8% of the American public has experienced infection, whether they recognized it or not.  The estimate that we have given you at this point is it appears that the rate is \u2014 and this is CDC\u2019s serology data \u2014 that the rate is approximately ten seropositive antibody individuals for every one case.  Obviously, that will be refined in the weeks ahead, but I think, you\u2019re right, looks like somewhere between 5% and 8% of the American public.”<\/a> – Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antibody serology testing<\/a> demonstrates that, as of late April, there were on the order of 10 to 50 times<\/strong> more Total Cases<\/strong> in reality than the daily reporting data shows. Most people do not know this, yet they look at Total Cases almost daily and many media sources quote it matter-of-factly without any reference to the “hidden cases” which far outnumber<\/strong> the reported cases. Given the data from these antibody serology studies, it is possible that even more people have become infected and recovered than the CDC’s June 2020 estimate.

Additionally, any changes in the REPORTED Total Cases over time likely reflect a change in testing availability and usage over time<\/strong><\/em> more than they reflect a genuine change in the true number of cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An error in data collection where PCR viral presence and antibody serology test data is combined rather than analyzed separately has an unknown impact. Yet another error in the CDC data science.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
CDC\u2019s coronavirus dashboard includes data that could inflate states\u2019 test numbers<\/div>
\u201cWithout a clear apples-to-apples comparison of the number of tests per capita, it is hard to compare disease rates across states,\u201d said Robert Bednarczyk, assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n


Total Recovered<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The same is true for Total Recovered<\/strong>. There are many people that<\/p>\n\n\n\n