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Tucker Carlson's and Brit Hume's faulty theories about coronavirus deaths being exaggerated [View all]
Source: Washington Post
Tucker Carlson’s and Brit Hume’s faulty theories about coronavirus deaths being exaggerated
By Aaron Blake
April 8, 2020 at 11:02 a.m. EDT
From the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak, President Trump’s allies in the media have been focused on downplaying the threat. At first they suggested it was being weaponized against Trump. Then they acknowledged the threat but argued the economic consequences of shutting down the country might be worse.
And now, as the death toll climbs, some of them are launching into a new argument: that deaths caused by the coronavirus might be inflated.
The evidence and logic they offer, though, is faulty. And there are plenty of reasons to believe the coronavirus death toll is actually being significantly undercounted right now.
Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on Tuesday night offered a sign of things to come when it comes to this argument. Both the host and his guest, former Fox News host Brit Hume, argued that the death toll may be exaggerated because people who are dying of other causes are being classified as coronavirus deaths.
-snip-
The most recent CDC data on this show the number of pneumonia deaths is indeed lower in recent weeks than it has been in previous years. The numbers have been between 3,200 and 3,500 per week since the coronavirus arrived in the United States in January. (The most recent week shows 2,930, but with 84 percent of expected deaths reported, meaning that number should rise.) Generally in this period, the numbers are between 3,500 and 4,500.
But if you look closely, you’ll notice that the data are old. The last week for which we have any data is the week ending March 21. And why is that March 21 date important? By that point, the United States had logged just 385 deaths from the coronavirus. So there’s no way that “thousands” of pneumonia deaths were being wrongly classified as deaths from the coronavirus, because there weren’t even 1,000 coronavirus deaths logged.
-snip-
By Aaron Blake
April 8, 2020 at 11:02 a.m. EDT
From the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak, President Trump’s allies in the media have been focused on downplaying the threat. At first they suggested it was being weaponized against Trump. Then they acknowledged the threat but argued the economic consequences of shutting down the country might be worse.
And now, as the death toll climbs, some of them are launching into a new argument: that deaths caused by the coronavirus might be inflated.
The evidence and logic they offer, though, is faulty. And there are plenty of reasons to believe the coronavirus death toll is actually being significantly undercounted right now.
Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on Tuesday night offered a sign of things to come when it comes to this argument. Both the host and his guest, former Fox News host Brit Hume, argued that the death toll may be exaggerated because people who are dying of other causes are being classified as coronavirus deaths.
-snip-
The most recent CDC data on this show the number of pneumonia deaths is indeed lower in recent weeks than it has been in previous years. The numbers have been between 3,200 and 3,500 per week since the coronavirus arrived in the United States in January. (The most recent week shows 2,930, but with 84 percent of expected deaths reported, meaning that number should rise.) Generally in this period, the numbers are between 3,500 and 4,500.
But if you look closely, you’ll notice that the data are old. The last week for which we have any data is the week ending March 21. And why is that March 21 date important? By that point, the United States had logged just 385 deaths from the coronavirus. So there’s no way that “thousands” of pneumonia deaths were being wrongly classified as deaths from the coronavirus, because there weren’t even 1,000 coronavirus deaths logged.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/08/tucker-carlsons-brit-humes-faulty-theories-about-coronavirus-deaths-being-exaggerated/
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