Thread by @GREENESJ333

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "UNDERSTANDING, NOT BEING MISINFORMED BY, NUMBERS

We have all heard the cliche about “lies”.

“THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF LIES. — LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS”
1)

Yet people have become accustomed to believe numbers however they are presented, without asking relevant questions as to what these numbers really measure - not what the media says they measure.
2)

One example is modern political polls. Polls are reported by the media without any accompanying evidence as to what questions were asked & how they were asked, where the sample of opinion was taken .... 3)

(polls in one location do not necessarily tell anything about opinion in another location) & so we get the media spin, or interpretation, that may be totally misleading.
4)

Remember the polls the few days before the 2016 President election in the USA had Hillary beating Trump by 9 points. 5)

Polls the week before the Brexit referendum in the UK had “stay” ahead of “leave”, & in the latest Parliamentary election, the polls showed Labour doing much better than it did.

But the media discuss poll results as if they really mean something.
6)

Another example:

Covid-19 Statistics worldwide and in the USA. We hear the numbers, but we do not hear about the fact that what constitutes a Covid-19 case differs from country to country, making it irresponsible to look just at numbers reported.
7)

In the USA, different states & localities are counting cases differently as well.
8)

Back in May, the New York coroner’s office admitted that the numbers applied to “presumptive Covid-19 cases" when Covid-19 present is assumed to be the cause of death when it accompanies another probable cause of death.
9)

But more complicated is the way the rise in cases is being reported by the media today.

Are the number of cases in Florida rising right now? Yes. Are hospitalizations rising in Florida? NO. Are deaths from Covid-19 rising in Florida? NO.
10)

So it is clear that while the disease is spreading, it is in mild or non-symptomatic forms, no worse than other flu cases. One reason numbers are rising is more people are being tested & because those with no symptoms but with antibodies in their systems are being counted.
11)

In Texas, they reported that Hospitalizations & ICU use was up. Well, out of curiosity I made some calls. Turned out the increased hospitalization & ICU use, was NOT from Covid-19,...
12)

but from the backlog of people who needed treatment & surgery who were prevented from access for 3 months.
13)

So, before we believe the numbers, it is in our interests to understand what they really mean - & not be subject to politicians or a biased media, whether CNN, Fox, or MSNBC, interpreting for us.
14)

REMEMBER THAT THE MEDIA AND THE POLITICIANS HAVE AN INTEREST IN MINIMIZING OR MAXIMIZING THE MEANINGS OF NUMBERS."
15)

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