The news sounded cataclysmic: Florida this week passed the threshold of 1 million people infected with COVID-19.
Overlooked was the fact that most of those people now feel fine. Or that seven times as many people have tested negative for the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Still, day after day, state health officials trumpet the total number of cases over the past eight months, painting the gigantic number atop their online report. Headlines follow.
The grand total gives a false indication of the pandemic’s presence in the community, epidemiologists say. And paying attention to it, without the right context, is misleading and politically polarizing.
Read more at our news partner the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
