Mainstream media, experts back to misleading on COVID as protests wind down

The mainstream media is taking a swipe at Donald Trump for an increase in COVID cases as the George Floyd protests wind down.

“President Donald Trump is getting what he wants: The country is opening up come what may, despite alarming indications that the coronavirus pandemic is intensifying its assault,” reported CNN.

CNN cites Arizona as an example of where COVID cases are accelerating.

Tweeted Andy Slavitt, an ex-Obama health care expert: “In March, AZ put through a ‘safer at home’ order. It worked. The curve that began flattened. But as the order ended & things got back to normal, so did the curve.”

But the numbers cited by the media and their enablers are misleading.

Arizona has reported a spike in the number of positive tests for COVID. What remains under-reported is that Arizona has done over 300,000 COVID tests since the beginning of May, after doing less than 70,000 previously, so a spike in cases should be expected.  

In addition they are sounding the alarm that soon they’ll run out of hospital beds.

“As of Thursday,” reported Tucson.com, “regular inpatient hospital beds were at 83% capacity statewide, up from 64% capacity toward the end of March, due to both COVID-19 and patients receiving medical care and surgeries they’d previously postponed.”

The operative part of the sentence is: “and patients receiving medical care and surgeries they’d previously postponed.”

“Normally, we would expect a those to be highly correlated,” admitted Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health.

More importantly, the number of deaths due to COVID that are reported by the Arizona public health website is also declining precipitately, while ICU bed capacity has remained steady.

Prior to June 1, the website shows daily deaths in the double digits most days through May. After June 1, only three days have seen double-digit deaths, and those have been 15 or fewer deaths.   

Liberals are insisting that the reopening of the economy in Arizona is to blame for “the increase” that really isn’t there.

“If you look at the data here in terms of the new cases being hospitalized, and of course the deaths, they’re being dominated by assisted living and skilled nursing facilities,” said one of those liberals, Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association who has warned against opening the economy.  

If that’s true, however, it’s hard to credit the reopening of the economy for the trouble. If the increase in activity were to blame, the population at large would be suffering from an increased rate of infection, not just the nursing home population.

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