Thread by @andrewflood

The Irish Times has a lot to answer for over that misleading headline - it’s made it a global source of misinformation rather than just a local one. Actual risk ratio is 1 in 19 - there was no need for the wishful thinking exaggeration based on poor understanding

https://twitter.com/Orla_Hegarty/status/1387681062592131072

Still has the original headline even after the HSE said this was a misreading of the data - I think in response to a question from an Irish Times journalist. You’d imagine that should have led to a ‘let’s correct the headline & insert a note’ from ‘the paper of record’

The problem Irish Times coverage is not just that it’s sloppy but when they get it wrong the ego bros don’t correct the record. After criticism of that headline Paul Cullen tried to get NPHET to agree & when he failed they immediately printed an article restating misinformation

From the time stamp this article repeating the 1 in 1000 was published 2 hours & 20 minutes after the question was asked, indeed the ‘very low’ is the one bit of the answer they used despite the fact the response was explaining why the 1 in 1000 was a misleading read of the stats

If you were an Irish Times reader relying on them to accurately inform them about risk you’d probably read that section as the Taoiseach being against the scientific evidence with regards to out door risk & the HPSC confirming the Irish Times version. That’s irresponsible

My parents are Irish Times readers so this misinformation to their readers about risk really annoys me - also successful reopening depends on good understanding of risk & mitigation around it. 1 in 1000 sounds not to be bothered with, 1 in 19 prompts how do I make this safer

II've an older thread when the misleading headline was first published that gets into the details of risk a bit more - I'm glad we seem to have got the 6+ week delay before opening I said was needed here

https://twitter.com/andrewflood/status/1379364946388135937?s=20