You’ve undoubtedly seen the news reports proclaiming New Jersey’s role as the leading state for new COVID-19 cases, Save Jerseyans. Is it?
I feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but the answer is “no one knows.”
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“Cases” and deaths are defined differently by different states. The same is true of long-term care reporting. There’s no standardization.
We’ve extensively reported on some of New Jersey’s practices – like counting hospitalized persons as “positive” once tested until the test comes back negative, and filling in much older cases as “new” – as reasons why New Jersey’s case reporting should never be accepted as fact.
Just the latest example: on Wednesday, our friend Woke Zombie pointed out on Twitter how one-third of the state’s “new” 3,400 cases were at least two weeks old. 500 of the cases are from 2020!
Backing out those dumped numbers might produce a very different picture concerning the state’s status, and since the Murphy Administration foolishly relies on case totals to justify its politically-motivated restriction decisions, backing out those old cases would undoubtedly give the public a different impression of whether the sacrifices being demanded of them are worth the terrible price.
So no, no one can honestly say (except for perhaps the Murphy Administration’s number manipulators) whether New Jersey is truly leading the country in new COVID-19 cases at the moment. The state’s counting method is designed to dramatically inflate its totals. We never get a true sense of the “real number” until weeks or even months later (see those 500 cases referenced above) when deletions and additions are sorted.
Stay skeptical. The scam is still very much on.
The Media isn’t asking these questions consistently not only because of bias, but also because let’s face it: a RISING pandemic gets more clicks than a serious analysis of why the panic is unfounded. You need to continue to rely on your own judgment.
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