VIEW VIEWPOINT
Logic and Virus Reporting
Kerby Anderson
Whenever you see a news report or hear a comment from a medical expert during this virus pandemic, it is important to use some discernment and apply some logic. Since so much of what is reported is from medical experts, it is easy to be intimidated since few of us have a medical degree. But you don’t have to know much about science or medicine to see the flaws in what is reported.
A good example from a month ago were the statements about masks. On the one hand, we were told that we should NOT wear a mask. On the other hand, we were told that medical professionals needed masks to protect themselves. Did that mean the masks only work if you get a paycheck from a clinic or hospital? The general public began to see through the double message being put out by politicians and health care experts.
Now medical professionals are writing articles trying to explain the different infection rates and death rates. They frequently point to different dates when states went into lockdown as the explanation. Yet a state like Nebraska, that never went into lockdown, has a very low death rate (less than 1 per 100,000).
Dennis Prager cites an article in the Los Angeles Times that quotes a UC Berkeley biostatistician. He argued that California has a lower death rate than New York, because California issued a lockdown order earlier than New York.
Prager then explains that the article undermines its entire thesis in the next paragraph by stating that Florida didn’t impose a stay-at-home order until April 1. The Los Angeles Times authors never thought to look up Florida’s death rate which is one of the lowest in the country. And it's worth mentioning that Florida has the largest percentage of elderly people in the country.
You don’t have to know much about medicine to see the logical flaws in the statements by politicians and the reporting by the media.
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