The Texas Tribune committed an act of fake news, reporting Thursday that more than “5,800 children in Texas were newly hospitalized with COVID-19 in the seven-day period ending on Aug. 8,” a 37% increase from the prior week.
The usual political operatives were quick to jump on the supposed news, using it to attack Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, who opposes school mask mandates even as his own children attend a school that requires them.
“Deadly hypocrisy,” said the left-wing Lincoln Project as it shared the Texas Tribune article on social media.
The problem here is that the news report isn’t true. In reality, roughly 5,800 Texas children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, not during a seven-day period ending on Aug. 8.
The Texas Tribune article now bears a weasel-worded correction, which reads (emphasis added):
<bsp-quote data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1628864711167,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b0-de22-a173-2ffa3d100000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1628864711167,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b0-de22-a173-2ffa3d100000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"quote":"An earlier version of this story overstated the number of children who have been hospitalized in Texas recently with COVID-19. The story said over 5,800 children had been hospitalized during a seven-day period in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number correctly referred to children hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began. In actuality, 783 children were admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 between July 1 and Aug. 9 of this year.","_id":"0000017b-3fe6-d05c-a9fb-3fe6ff670000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b92f10002"}”><i>An earlier version of this story overstated the number of children who have been hospitalized in Texas recently with COVID-19. The story said over 5,800 children had been hospitalized during a seven-day period in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number correctly referred to children hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began. In actuality, 783 children were admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 </i><b><i>between July 1 and Aug. 9 of this year</i></b><i>.</i>Note how the correction inexplicably changes the reference period for measuring child hospitalizations. It goes from measuring a seven-day period to measuring a 39-day period, almost as if the paper is trying to juice the numbers to lessen the embarrassment of its initial reporting. Note also how the correction claims it “correctly” referred to the to-date hospitalization numbers.
The Texas Tribune is essentially saying, “We reported there were 5,800 hospitalizations in one week. It was actually 783 hospitalizations in 6 weeks. But at least we accidentally referred to the correct to-date number.”
Some correction.
It’s one thing to publish an error. It’s another thing to publish one that clearly doesn’t pass the sniff test. How is it possible that no one at the Texas Tribune stopped for a moment and said, “Wait, these numbers are too incredible to believe, especially based on what we know about the virus, transmission, and children?” Moreover, shouldn’t we do an apples-to-apples comparison to the erroneous figure by looking at how many were hospitalized in one week (presumably about 150)?
For the paper’s initial claim to be true, one would have to believe it’s possible for there to be 20 child hospitalizations per 100,000 residents, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rate for children is roughly 0.34 per 100,000. Did no one at the Texas Tribune stop to reconsider what was going on before hitting “publish” on a report claiming COVID-19 was 60 times worse than health officials say it is?
I suppose this is the sort of thing that happens when you want a story to be true.
