Watching the local news is part of my morning routine. I make my coffee. I turn on the TV and tune to the local news to play in the background while I read the newspaper. Yes, I am old. I like the local news team I watch. They are a good team and they seem to enjoy working together. I mainly only pay close attention to the weather. I have, however, paid attention to how they cover the Covid numbers, and the way they do it drives me crazy.
First, the conspiracy theory portion – The CDC Covid Tracker website has a map that shows Covid rates at a county level. The ones with high and substantial rates are the places they recommend everyone wear a mask. The local news showed this map consistently when the numbers were bad. Now that a number of our counties have dropped from high to substantial and we have two counties at moderate. the map has disappeared from the broadcast. And they wonder why people think the media plays a part in pushing an agenda.
Now, the minor annoyance part – the way they report the number of deaths and hospitalizations is inaccurate.
Deaths – all of the deaths are tragic no matter when they happened. It bugs me though when they continually report that X number of people died in the last 24 hours when it is actually X number of deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. If we want a clear picture of the state of the pandemic now, we need to make it clearer what the current number is vs the historical numbers. The reporting delay is not too bad in Maryland, but in some places, they are still reporting deaths from months ago. The news can’t say these deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. It isinaccurate.
Hospitalizations – When they report the number of hospitalizations they also do it inaccurately. For example, Saturday the number of people in the hospital for Covid dropped by 16. The news reported that 16 people were released from the hospital. If that was accurate, that would mean no one was admitted to the hospital and that is not true. The number dropped by 16, but that means 16 more people were released than admitted. It doesn’t mean 16 people were released from the hospital.
I know these both seem petty and probably are, but I think accuracy is important when reporting the news. Especially when it comes to something like Covid numbers.
You know what bugs me? How, if someone didn’t die of COVID, you have to say it. Like a COVID death makes you a martyr or an idiot depending on the context, but “regular” death is treated lighter. I’m on a diatribe about this
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I was irritated when every mention of Clinton being in the hospital felt the need to say “non-Covid related”
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Right? The focus should be that someone’s hospitalized, or sick or died. Does the reason matter? It’s all worrisome and tragic
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Or at least trust that we will assume if they have Covid everyone will be sure to tell us over and over again.
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I’m so tired of agendas. Death and being sick is horrible. Period. No sides.
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Just recently the passing of Colin Powell says it all. He had blood cancer and Parkinsons when he got covid, and the media says he died of covid instead of his other conditions. A friend of ours husband died at home from cancer and when his wife received his death certificate, it stated he died of covid even though he didn’t have it. So, who do we believe, if anyone? Our local news teams in DFW are pretty good also.
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And then he was used as a poster child for “the vaccines don’t work” completely ignoring his other serious illnesses
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I have to agree. It’s annoying when it’s so important to make it clear what these numbers are.
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I noticed the same thing with the reporting deaths. I’m really tired of the COVID reporting, too.
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I absolutely agree with you here. Sounds like scare tactics
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Or at least a way to get people to keep watching. Bad news sells
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