Figures don't lie, but liars figure.
Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:28 am
As states re-open well before the 2 week downturn in cases that should precede a reopening, the limited data that we are able to collect will be critical. If you are a Governor who has opened your state early, will you be tempted to massage the data if things are not working well?
This is one of my greatest concerns about early reopening: If a Governor has made a mistake that will result in a Second Wave, will he listen to numbers that make him happy, or numbers that reflect reality? Here's something that's happening in Florida that worries me:
Then, as now, people will want to fudge the numbers.
This is one of my greatest concerns about early reopening: If a Governor has made a mistake that will result in a Second Wave, will he listen to numbers that make him happy, or numbers that reflect reality? Here's something that's happening in Florida that worries me:
During the the Great War and the Pandemic of 1918, the U.S. government suppressed information about the Pandemic because of the war, and sent troops across the Atlantic on crowded transports where sometimes 10-15% died from the Pandemic before they set foot on French soil.The Hill wrote:
Florida officials have reportedly withheld medical examiners’ data on coronavirus deaths in the state for over a week, with the policy changing shortly after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners were counting 10 percent more deaths than the state.
Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, told the Tampa Bay Times that the state health department intervened and told him it planned to remove causes of death and case descriptions from mortality data.
Nelson told the newspaper the data is meaningless without that information, and the entirety of the list should be considered public information.
“This is no different than any other public record we deal with,” he said. “It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know.”
Alberto Moscoso, a spokesman for the state health department, told the Times that the department “participated in conference calls” with the state Department of Law Enforcement, which provides administrative support to the Medical Examiners Commission, saying the discussions pertained to “privacy concerns for the individuals that passed away related to COVID-19.”
He said the state did not provide a formal legal opinion during the calls.
In March, the agency attempted to persuade the Miami-Dade County medical examiner’s office to restrict access to death records, according to the Times, citing correspondence between the two agencies. The county ultimately released the records, including the names of the dead.
Hillsborough County, meanwhile, refused to release records for weeks before eventually releasing a list on Tuesday of those identified as dying from the virus after questioning from the newspaper. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner, which previously provided a spreadsheet of coronavirus-related deaths, was directed by county attorneys last week to stop releasing it, according to the Times.
Then, as now, people will want to fudge the numbers.