On March 18, 2020 the CDC COVID-19 Response Team published a report titled 'Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Corona virus Disease 2019'. News agencies and journalists immediately began twisting the contents of the report to formulate a message that would heighten their readers emotions. This is an effective tactic to cultivate loyal followers. Unfortunately it does little to accurately report the news.
The New York Times led the pack by releasing their spin with a 'breaking news' article titled,
"Younger Adults Make Up Big Portion of Coronavirus Hospitalizations in US"
The article was written by Pam Belluck. It started with, " New C.D.C. data shows that nearly 40 percent of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were age 20 to 54. But the risk of dying was significantly higher in older people"
At first one may get the impression younger adults are impacted by the Corona virus worse then originally thought. Let's take a closer look at the statement and figure out what is being reported.
The author combines "younger adults" and "aged 20 to 54". This should immediately sound some warning bells.
The term 'younger adults' is relative. A 54 year old adult could be considered a young adult compared to an 84 year old. The average life expectancy in the USA is just under 79 so perhaps anything less then half that can be considered a younger adult. Bottom line there is no definitive meaning of 'younger adult' but very few people over 40 or probably even 30 would consider themselves a 'younger adult'.
The Aged 20 to 54 accounts for 149,602,000 million people or approximately 46% of the total population. It is only natural for a large portion of them would be infected.
The author's hype is diminished when one observes the facts behind the statement and puts things into perspective.
Population of the United States by age groups:
2018
Age Pop.
20-24 21.87
25-29 23.56
30-34 22.13
35-39 21.56
40-44 19.72
45-49 20.74
50-54 20.89
2018 Total Population 327.29
(All numbers in millions)
Go back to the articles and you will find
"The CDC analyzed the cases of about 2,500 patients in the United States whose ages were known. Of the 508 patients known to have been hospitalized, 20% were notably younger - between ages 20 and 44, while 18% were between ages 45 and 54, the report says."
The author is reporting a 'federal study' has made these conclusions. This report is gaining media attention both written and televised. The messages are similar so one would naturally believe the 'federal study' contains this message as well.
CNN released a piece by Faith Karimi shortly after the NY Times released the Belluck piece. Published in CNN health the article is titled
"Young adults under age 44 make up a big part of coronavirus hospitalizations in the US" .
This CNN journalist tries to capitvate her audience with the lead: " Up to 20% of people hospitalized with corona virus in the United States are young adults between ages 20 to 44, a new federal study shows"
Notice the age grouping is different and slightly but still ridiculous from a statistical perceptive. An intelligent reader has to start having serious concerns about the adeaquecy of this government report based on the vague techniques used even though the report has not yet been viewed by the reader.
Later in the article Karimim states:
"The CDC analyzed the cases of about 2500 patients in the United States whose ages were known. Of the 508 patients known to have been hospitalized, 20% were notably younger — between ages 20 and 44..."
When a report is used by the media as a source a reader must obtain a copy of the report. The contents of the report will reveal the message the reporter is trying to convey and quickly exposes the biases of a reporter.
After reading these two articles and additional news reports I am left with the believe the report itself is ridiculous. Lets go to the actual report which a quick search on Google will locate a
pdf version of the report. Reviewing the report a reader will quickly realize as he report states throughout the report. One thing that sticks out in the media report is the age group 20-54. This should never be considered a group statistically. The UN published "
Provisional Guidelines on Standard International Age Classifications" and there is nowhere in the guidelines where the age group 20-54 or 20-44 is ever used.
The CDC report explains the data is preliminary and or missing. In other words there was not enough data to correctly and accurately form a positive conclusion. The media reports never stated this limitaiton of the CDC report.
The CDC report also states there were 4.226 reported cases in the United States. Among them only 2449 had a confirmed age.
The report goes on to declare conclusions based on 508 patients known to have been hospitalized. They found the percentage of hospitalized cases increased with age.
The CDC report can only be considered preliminary and incomplete. It is in other words just a beginning as is much of the COVID-19 data collected this far.
The media is counting on their public not to read the report. So they take the liberty of wording their reporting to heighten their readers emotions. Some may say this is "Fake News" and blame the media outlets. In reality it is twisted facts to gain your abstention. I do not blame the media I blame you and myself because we have become complacent and lazy. We rely on these news blurbs, Facebook posts, tweets from Twitter and memes found on multiple social media platforms. We do not take the time to review the source or research the history and facts behind these messages targeted to enrage us with emotions.
Be careful reacting to the news especially when it comes to emotional situations such as the one we are currently experiencing. A person cannot trust any one media outlet or reporter. It is imperative to: listen to everyone, trust Nobody and investigate information from all sides with an open mind and you will find yourself one step closer to the truth.
