Wonders what it takes to start believing COVID numbers
Last week I challenged all of us to consider the processes — conscious or not — we use to determine what we consider to be the truth. I raised this point about statistical facts and, more specifically, about the number of people who: 1) consider the data on COVID-19 cases and deaths as either inflated or just plain total hoax; and 2) believe that President Trump actually won the 2020 election despite repeated failures to legally establish any claims that might overturn the reported results (an astonishing 88% of Republicans according to the most recent poll).
I repeat my challenge that we all accept at least some numerical facts based on the trustworthiness of the source. I claimed that, unlike the Los Angeles Times and ESPN on baseball results, Rudy Giuliani was NOT a credible source regarding the accuracy of ballot counting but that state boards of election were — as has always been the case in the past, including in 2016 when the results were MUCH closer than now.
I was implying President Trump as being no more credible than Giuliani. This is a President who for over two weeks has remained fixated on the election results while ignoring the ever-increasing number of new cases and deaths due to COVID-19.
We have now endured 257,000-plus total and are seeing nearly 2,000 daily deaths due to this virus. Do you still believe these numbers are part of a hoax? Even now that the election is over? Even now that we are on a path to reach an average of 3,000 deaths DAILY several days before Christmas according to the IHME forecast (which I consider to be a trustworthy source along with Johns Hopkins University and the CDC)? The IHME model projects surpassing 312,000 total deaths on that day (12/21) and nearly 500,000 by the end of February — the furthest out the model predicts at this point. As I have pointed out in the past, these projections typically underestimate the actual deaths observed.
If you do not believe the current numbers what will it take for you to start?
Do you need a relative to die from COVID-19? Someone in your immediate family? Yourself?
Meanwhile, we have a President who apparently still would have you believe that we are turning the corner on the virus.
This is the same President who just threw Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia, and Kelly Loeffler, a sitting U.S. Senator from Georgia — both big Trump supporters — under the bus.
We should all think about the implications of that.
Paul Mack
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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