On The Listening Post this week: Infection rates, death rates - the news is full of statistics about the virus, but how accurate are they? Plus, Italian journalists reflect on reporting COVID-19.
COVID-19 is a news story driven by the numbers. The data helps journalists quantify the scale of the pandemic and allows news consumers to assess the risk. The numbers also inform governments on what measures should be taken.
But statisticians say the way in which coronavirus data is collected, interpreted and reported, is inherently flawed. The issue is not misinformation, rather it is the limitations of science, in the early stages of understanding a new virus and a new pandemic.
Contributors:
Jon Allsop - Writer, CJR newsletter
John Ioannidis - Professor, Stanford University
Maggie Koerth - Senior science reporter, FiveThirtyEight
John Allen Paulos - Mathematics professor, Temple University; author of A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper