CBS News says Alaska COVID-19 up 111 percent since ‘opening’ economy

By
Suzanne Downing
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38

‘FAKE NEWS’ REPORT MAKES WILD MATH CLAIMS

CBS This Morning has an incredible report on the predicted spike of COVID-19 cases around the country.

Incredible, in that the news show said that Alaska has seen a spike of 111 percent in cases of the coronavirus since the state reopened for most business.

In fact, there were 35 active cases of the coronavirus in Alaska on May 12, while there are 39 active cases today, May 26. On May 12, there were 345 cases recovered, while on May 26, there were 362 cases recovered. And no new deaths were reported due to COVID-19 in the past 21 days; the total death count is still 10, with some of those deaths considered only marginally questionably related to COVID-19.

Phase 3-4 of reopening began Friday, with Anchorage not reopened until Monday. But the mainstream news organization was twisting the math to fit the narrative.

405 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Alaska since early March, but the numbers have not been on the increase. If anything, there’s been a measurable drop in new cases over the past few weeks, since the spike in mid-March:

That’s not to say there won’t be another spike, now that out-of-state workers are arriving for the fishing season. But it just hasn’t happened yet.

The State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is aware of the CBS report and Alaskans’ outcry, and are reaching out to the national newsroom to attempt to correct the record.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Huh? That is even pathetic by their usual standards! Didn’t we just open up on Friday, with Berkowitz following on Monday? And, if there is an incubation period …. how do we , or anyone that just now opens up, have such a dramatic increase literally overnight? The answer is we don’t.
    .
    Does anyone really believe this crap anymore? Do they sit in a fake news laboratory and make this stuff up? It’s like reading the Duffle Blog (please google for those that have never read it…it is hilarious…and yes, it is fake).

    • I agree 100 percent. It’s all crap. Bunch of nonsense. I said the same thing about an article in Florida. 750 news cases this weekend. Who was testing. How where the tests preformed. When where the tests preformed. What type of people where the new cases. All these numbers are just that. Not backed by hard imperial, fair data. Just another bull— number

  2. After reading this report Suzanne I tried to send the following statement the CBS National News. After filling in my Name and email I entered my comments. When finished and hitting the submit button. A rejection notice appeared stating, paraphrasing, You must submit feedback and use only alpha-numeric characters. I removed first commas, then numbers spelling them out even though they are numeric characters, then parents and finally changed C-19 virus to virus only. After each change I tried to submit the feedback. I received the same rejection every time. I believe that they only accept feedback from socialist that agree with them. Here are my unsuccessful comments:

    “I stopped watching CBS News years ago when you ran a special on deer hunters that was false and malicious. However you have only become more discredited with your constant biased and false attacks on President Trump and everything Conservatives do to save our Nation. Today you crossed the line and published a totally bogus report of a One hundred and eleven percent increase in virus victims since AK started reopening. Only a total liar and idiot would look at the record of our Governors GOP actions to control the spread of the virus and to safely reopen our State. With a total of ten deaths and so few cases that AK ranks Number One in the Nation for virus prevention proves once again the President Trump is totally right and your Propaganda Democratic Socialist machine should not be on the air. As an Alaskan that has lived in this great State over fifty years I demand an investigation into this political hit job and the firing of all involved in its reporting and airing. A retraction and apology to the Nation and all Alaskans is the least you can do. We welcome you to research Alaska’s efforts to control the virus and protect all Alaskans and visitors. Proud Alaskan supporter of President Trump.”

    The truth has nothing to do with CBS News or any main stream media outlets.

  3. I can explain how CBS came up with those figures…they were using Common Core math…

  5. Straight from Democrat National Headquarters. Isn’t that where CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC, and MSNBC get all of their information and marching orders?

  6. First rule of the post-modern “resistance” media: Never let reality get in the way of the story you want to put out. The truth be damned. Even conservative media outlets do this but the other 98.7 percent if the time, it is the Leftists.

  7. The math is correct. 35 x 1.11 = 38.85 which rounds to 39.

    Always, always, always be wary of anyone expressing numbers as percentages in this way. It is now done all the time, to alarm people. People look at the 111% and they think, “Oh no, it’s gone up more than 100 times!”
    No, no, no, it went up 1.11 times. Which, in the case of 35 to 39, which is 4, and as a statistic is an insignificant amount. (Although I am sorry for the people who caught the disease.)

    • It’s not even 111% because that would mean it more than doubled. It is actually ~11% or 1.11 times, so your math is correct but the percentage is wrong.

      • 4/35=0.1142857142857143 or an 11.4% increase. See how it’s supposed to be done? 111% increase would be 39 new cases not 4.

    • No the math is not correct. 39 is only 11% more than 35 not 111% more. An increase of 111% from 35 would be 74 (rounded). But that is not the whole problem with your comment. CBS did not reference “Active cases” – Suzanne did. CBSN referenced “New Cases.” I believe the JHU data for Alaska, had a bad data value for cases not in one of the Alaska “counties” on May 16 which may have been responsible for the CBSN error. That error seems to have been corrected. I’m not going to try and chase it any further. Some of the geniuses here can do that. Jere

    • That math does work, but that is not the correct use of percent change. The correct math is (39-35)/35 = 11.4% We had an 11.4% increase in cases over the last two weeks.

      • CBS said they took the data from the Johns Hopkins University data base. They referenced “Average New Cases” not “Active Cases.” They did not specify what they meant by average – 3 day average, 1 week average, ???. JHU data base does not contain an “average new cases” so CBS had to calculate that – and so will you. JHU posts Alaska data 1 day after our DHSS posts the state data. Sometimes they aggregate several days of data into a single day. A difference of one day could make a big difference in an average especially when there are days with 0 new cases in the series. During the period in question, the past two or three week ending Sunday the 24th the JHU data contained some really bad data as I noted above. Another example of GIGO. Jere

  8. No surprise here! Just as expected. A false narrative. Or as been said, “ fake news”.

  9. Now, now. It’s just the children playing with “main stream” media. Nothing new here. My only advice–consider the source and keep looking for the truth. You won’t find it on ‘MSM’.

  12. It said up 111% in new cases. So if they had one new case the day before opening up and then three new cases the next day that would be a 150% increase. It’s not twisting the math it’s just knowing how to do math and having a little reading comprehension.

  13. Three categories of falsehoods:
    1. Lies
    2. Damn Lies
    3. Statistics

    Attempts to credit this quote were met with muddled results, but it wasn’t Mark Twain.

    • To be fair, it would have likely never reached so much popularity without Twain mis-crediting the quote in the first place. For all we know, he came up with it in an imaginative conversation with himself and forgot about it until he wrote it thinking that he heard it from Disraeli. A mystery for sure.

  14. I believe it was Goethe who noted that ” nothing is so terrifying as ignorance in action”. Without a doubt this COVID-19 business and the media’s reporting of it could fit his description.

  15. Do these numbers account for the swelling number of people from out of state who are positive and in Alaska?

  16. Stating facts in such a way so as to support a narrative is always what happens on “news” channels anymore. The more skewed they can make it appear is always the avenue taken. Hype it up any way possible.

  17. Since I’ve been reading MRAK, it has become my ONLY trusted news source. Say what you want about Suzanne’s supposed agenda and style, but I trust her to do her best to deliver the full story.
    On the 29th I have to host a camp ground full time, for four months. I won’t have internet there. I will miss all you commentators, who add much to MRAK.

  18. Can you please post the link where you grabbed this image? I cannot find it anywhere on the internet or at CBS. It sounds like you are spreading fake news with this post.

  19. The MSM just cannot do math. As someone said previously, they probably used common core to do their math. It is just like when Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race after spending 500 million dollars, the MSM said that was enough to give everyone in the country (~~300 million people in US) a million dollars (the real answer is approximately $1.50). Just goes to prove that many people do not know math!

  20. ADN headline just now:

    “Alaska reports 13 new cases of COVID-19, the biggest daily number in weeks ”

    Look it up.

    • And, using State of Alaska data (Not John’s Hopkins University data), calculating 7 day average of new cases for seven days including today, and the comparable period two weeks ago yields a 109.1% upward spike in the seven day average of new deaths in Alaska. CBS, even being wrong at the time, was just a little early. Jere

  21. I shared your article in a FB group as a cautionary tale about checking the math and how numbers see arrived at before quoting statistics. One of the responders said she can’t find the Graphic anywhere else and wonders, based on your relationship with the Republican Party, if you made the whole thing up. Care to respond?

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