By Matt Rooney
_
You like me are old enough to remember when “flattening the curve” was the goal, Save Jerseyans. Now the goal is… beating the virus? I can’t tell you what that looks like since Saint Fauci is suggesting we may never beat COVID-19.
Major, major props to Kurt Siegelin of News 12 New Jersey who’s been one of the hero journalists of this debacle. In case you haven’t been following along, Kurt has been HOUNDING the Murphy Administration (and DOH in particular) in recent weeks over their deceptive reporting practices. You should follow him on Twitter if you aren’t already.
–
One of his primary complaints is New Jersey’s decision to include “PUIs” (patients under investigation) in the hospitalization total. For example, if someone is hospitalized for a stomach ache and given a COVID-19 test on a Friday, that patient could turn up in the following week’s COVID-19 hospitalization total UNTIL said patient is cleared.
The end result is an insulting ridiculous situation:
On the hospitalization vs. ever-hospitalized response. I can't stress how big of a deal this is! As of today, state claims 21,184 covid + patients treated in hosps. That is OMG re what NJ reported along the way in hosps (30-40K total?)The answer? PUIs who were negative & removed. pic.twitter.com/jz6OVrq1gC
— Kurt Siegelin (@kurtsiegelin) July 24, 2020
Day after day for months, the Gov said re the hospitalization number "xx number of residents being treated for covid 19" Over & over & over. The word "treated". Did he really mean "treated and/or tested"? (PUIs) Well, he never said that. It's certainly not the impression he gave.
— Kurt Siegelin (@kurtsiegelin) July 24, 2020
That’s only one of the methods being employed to artificially inflate the numbers.
Another: if you take a test on July 24th and again on July 30th? You’re being counted twice.
So yeah, as it turns out, the “curve” (the flattening of which USED to be the goal) was likely always much flatter than we knew. Chew on that this weekend as you grocery shop in your sweaty mask.
_
