Who wants to bet that the “total cases” and “total deaths” ticker that’s been plastered on CNN for the past six months will suddenly vanish on Nov. 4?
As with pretty much everything else related to the coronavirus, the reporting on total cases and deaths serves to do nothing more than keep the public in panic. The numbers at this point are essentially meaningless.
And on cases, you don’t have to take it from me. The New York Times reported as much this week:
‘We’ve have reached a phase where the number of infections alone is no longer as meaningful,’ Mr. Streeck said.
As I write this, CNN has the “total cases” in the United States graphic up, showing that we’ve had more than 6.5 million cases. Aren’t you shocked?!
You shouldn’t be. Estimates are that, at minimum, 5.2 million of those people either have recovered or will recover just fine without any medical intervention. And on average, the virus runs its course in the human body over a two-week period. The number of cases per day peaked in mid-July, which was eight weeks ago. We’ve been on a downward trend ever since. Why are we still adding up a number of people who got well (if they ever actually felt sick) in the distant past?
Like the total number of cases, the total number of deaths is also fairly useless, unless you’re writing a history book. But most people watching the news aren’t writing a history book. They’re wanting to know if things are getting better or worse.
Guess when our peak number of deaths hit. It was in mid-April, which was five months ago. The death rate has plummeted since then, with the exception of a two-week period in the first half of July when we saw an upswing, which then turned down again.
Is it more important to know how many people have died of COVID-19 since February or how many have died in the past month?
At our peak in mid-April, there were 17,000 deaths in one week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the last four weeks, we’ve seen just over 10,000.
No one is celebrating the 10,000 deaths that took place in a month’s time, but the context is important, and the point should be to inform, not fear.
CNN is choosing fear.
