On 3 October, Yahoo published an article with the headline: “These 11 states Now Have the Worst Covid Outbreaks in the US.”
Seeing this headline, an inexperienced reader reasonably could assume that a very dangerous disease has spread across America. If one examines the article more thoroughly, however, the fear narrative quickly falls apart.
The article begins its fear campaign by stating the pandemic appeared to be winding down in August and September, but, in recent weeks, the U.S. has seen an 8 percent rise in COVID cases.
Stop here and think for a minute… what information is being omitted?
On deeper scrutiny of the “8-percent increase” in cases, we find the article has left out how many tests were performed. Without knowing the amount of increase (or decrease) in testing, the “8 percent” figure is completely irrelevant.
The article loses further credibility by omitting the number of deaths from the states suffering the “worst outbreaks.” Yet, it does list those suffering the “worst outbreaks” in cases: Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Utah, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
On 3 October, the total number of COVID deaths in these 11 states was 17. The combined population of these 11 states approximately 30 million people.
If you do the math, that means your chance of dying from COVID in these “hotbeds of infection” is 0.000036 percent.
