[LG999]

So tired of being lied to

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

The are a few things that I'm curious about. I'd like to see the number of positive cases each day by county. It seems to me that the vast majority of cases are being discovered in Miami-Dade, Brevard and Palm Beach counties.
I also understand that the majority of new cases have been in the 18-40 year age group.
Could this be because when bars were re-opened that a lot of young people began going to bars while ignoring social distancing? Could some of the bar owners have ignored the maximum occupancy requirements in an effort to make up for lost business?

I also don't seem to be able to find the number of new cases by state as a percentage of the population. Florida is the third largest state in the country. It stands to reason that we'd have the third most cases, but we are fourth.

Another number that I've never seen is the number of people that have had the virus and have had recovered. How many "active" cases are there?

It seems that the more people that currently have the virus the more of a danger it is. But people that have had it and have recovered are no longer a danger. So far there have been about 3.2 million cases in the US, but that is a total number of people that have had it. It's a bit misleading because it makes it seem as though there are 3 million contagious people running around with the virus. Same thing for Florida. The have been 244,000 cases in Florida, but that doesn't mean that that many people still have the virus.

Older people are in greater danger of dying from Covid-19. It would stand to reason that Florida would have the highest percentage of deaths from the virus.

I'm not drawing any conclusions from any of this. I'm just saying that we're not being given all of the information, or many of us are missing much of the information that we need to form an opinion of what's going on.

Obviously, this virus is very serious. 180 countries around the world are treating it as such. But still, looking at bits and pieces of information and cherry picking certain numbers doesn't help anyone or anything.

Add to that the fact that it is in the best interest of the media to sensationalize everything and I have to question how informed we are.

[Leadbone1]

Originally Posted by GoodLife

Sounds scary doesn't it? But it's a flat out lie meant to scare you. Panic Porn

That's the headline the Orlando Sentinel went with today, and they opened the story with this.

Florida reported 120 new COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday — the single biggest daily increase — pushing the death toll past 4,000 and coming after weeks of exploding coronavirus cases across the state.


Florida reports 120 COVID-19 fatalities, its deadliest day of pandemic - Orlando Sentinel

Here is the graph they presented charting Florida deaths.

Attachment 85176

Wow...very scary, deaths are rising must be that surge of new cases.

The problem with the Sentinel's headline and chart is there were only 9 deaths from covid 19 on Thursday. The rest of the 120 deaths were from previous dates and to make a correct chart you have to backfill reported deaths to the date they actually happened. I am pretty sure they know this but 120 deaths in a single day just makes for great panic porn headlines.

Here is a correct chart with deaths listed on the actual day they happened.

Attachment 85177

So far total of 135 deaths in July for Florida. This number will rise as deaths by actual date are backfilled. It takes time for deaths to be coded at hospitals, sent to the county, then the State and CDC.

It's unfortunate that we can't trust media reports on just about anything.

The current day media cannot be trusted about anything they say. It’s not just exaggeration. They blatantly lie to the public every day.

[Boblib68]

And who do we trust? Our government? Come on

[Raywatkins]

We are Brits with a house in TV. Unfortunately we can’t be there just now because of COVID. We in the UK learned very early on that daily numbers are not important. The trend is however. The rate of infection is directly related to contact between someone infected and someone who is not. Keep the rate of transmission below 1 and things will improve. Otherwise infection numbers will show an upward trend.
Looking at various states the trend is upward. Parts of Florida are going in that direction. TV has avoided much of this pandemic. Probably through caution of its inhabitants - who are mainly in the higher at risk categories. If TV had followed the worldwide experience then there should have been a much higher death rate.
People will believe what they want. But when they fail to take sensible precautions they are not just risking their own lives but those of many others.
That message has hit home here in the UK where we have largely suppressed COVID to the point that even though we are opening up all sorts of operations, we are keeping the rate of spread below 1 and hence cases and deaths are still falling. Hopefully we will stay on that trend. We look forward to the US getting on that trend completely if only so we can visit.

[DonnaNi4os]

I’m not disputing your message, however on this morning’s CBS news there was a doctor who pointed out that it often takes 2 weeks for death certificates to be registered. So, does that mean the reported death were from several days ago or perhaps that the recent COVID-19 related deaths haven’t even been placed in the records? I don’t have that answer but I remain cautious.

[Dana1963]

It’s hard to believe WDW closed March 16 when Florida reported 120 cases no deaths and reopens today with over 4000 deaths and averaging 9000 to over 10000 positive cases as day. The Villages averaging 20 daily

[MandoMan]

The article you attached is not easy to understand. It requires careful attention, but it is pretty much saying what you say. I think part of the problem is that usually the journalists who write the news stories don’t write the headlines. Headlines are usually written by specialists who are good at clever or short headlines and who know what will make people want to read more. They usually don’t have time to read the entire article because they may need to write a hundred headlines a day. So they scan the first paragraph or two. I’m not certain, but I think that is what happened here.

However, those who say newspapers and, much worse, television news provide alarmist news and reports to keep you watching through the next advertisement are definitely right. This isn’t a new thing! If you watch movies about the newspaper business from the 1930s, you see the same thing. The worst is the “click-bait” that surrounds a lot of online articles. You click on those and descend into a labyrinth of scam as you try to hop from photo to photo.

Originally Posted by GoodLife

Sounds scary doesn't it? But it's a flat out lie meant to scare you. Panic Porn

That's the headline the Orlando Sentinel went with today, and they opened the story with this.

Florida reported 120 new COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday — the single biggest daily increase — pushing the death toll past 4,000 and coming after weeks of exploding coronavirus cases across the state.


Florida reports 120 COVID-19 fatalities, its deadliest day of pandemic - Orlando Sentinel

Here is the graph they presented charting Florida deaths.

Attachment 85176

Wow...very scary, deaths are rising must be that surge of new cases.

The problem with the Sentinel's headline and chart is there were only 9 deaths from covid 19 on Thursday. The rest of the 120 deaths were from previous dates and to make a correct chart you have to backfill reported deaths to the date they actually happened. I am pretty sure they know this but 120 deaths in a single day just makes for great panic porn headlines.

Here is a correct chart with deaths listed on the actual day they happened.

Attachment 85177

So far total of 135 deaths in July for Florida. This number will rise as deaths by actual date are backfilled. It takes time for deaths to be coded at hospitals, sent to the county, then the State and CDC.

It's unfortunate that we can't trust media reports on just about anything.

[davem4616]

Originally Posted by xNYer

You are misunderstanding the data records and you have your fake news supporters agreeing.

xNYer: It would be helpful if you would please share specifics on where you believe the OP has misunderstood the data records

it's difficult to determine what is truth and what is half-truth or incorrect in this era and most of us are actually open to different viewpoints

[GoodLife]

Originally Posted by Annie66

You don't have to trust the news if that is your political slant, but a death is a death is a death. You cannot call that fake news.
According to the FL Covid web site, we had 11,385 reported new cases and 93 new deaths yesterday. Those are real tragedies for families and not just numbers. So you can poo-poo the media reporting but if it leads you to disbelieving the seriousness of this pandemic, then just wait. You'll no doubt become personally enveloped in the crisis, whether as a Typhoid Mary spreader or a victim, and thus one of the statistics.

Florida reported 93 deaths, but in reality only 9 of them occurred on that day, the rest were backfilled to previous dates in June, May even April. Date of actual death is important to spot real trends, media prefers to spread panic by pretending all those deaths happened on day of report.

How nice to predict I will become a victim simply for pointing out facts.

[kaniess]

At this time we need to focus on hospitalization and ICU admission rates. The Florida dashboard only reports a cumulative number of people who have been hospitalized apparently for COVID-19 since the beginning which is about as useful as the cumulative case numbers. The number of people who are in the hospitals for COVID-19 at the present time is not reported. Timely COVID-19 admissions and releases plus deaths on a daily basis at every hospital would be more useful. I'd like to know the ICU availability situation at the UF Villages hospitals and emergency rooms in real-time. In April and May when COVID-19 was mainly in SE Florida The Villages hospital was reporting that there were a few or no COVID-19 patients. I haven't heard any information recently from a spokesman there. There is a dashboard that is attempting to quantify the hospital availability situation by local area, but it is not the official state dashboard. Experience

[McGyver9]

STILL waiting for a LINK to something CREDIBLE to contradict the OP.

Wondering how many of those who "reportedly died of the Rona" had terminal cancer/heart attacks/COPD/bad asthma?
If you die WITH the Rona, you are reported as dying OF the Rona...

[bp243]

In my humble opinion, scientists will always win over politicians!

[GoodLife]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

The article you attached is not easy to understand. It requires careful attention, but it is pretty much saying what you say. I think part of the problem is that usually the journalists who write the news stories don’t write the headlines. Headlines are usually written by specialists who are good at clever or short headlines and who know what will make people want to read more. They usually don’t have time to read the entire article because they may need to write a hundred headlines a day. So they scan the first paragraph or two. I’m not certain, but I think that is what happened here.

The headline, actual text in the article, and the graph are all deliberately designed to spread panic, not actual understanding of the data.

[hrenner]

Originally Posted by IUFAN

I totally agree. I have a friend that works in the hospital and that were told no matter what if a person dies that in any likeness to the virus that they are category as covid 19 because that way the hospital gets $13,000 a death that is caused by the virus. SAD

This info comes from a friend telling a friend?