The Texas Tribune has corrected a glaring error that stated 5,800 children had been hospitalized within a seven-day period in August. The 5,800 figure, however, referred to children hospitalized with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
“An earlier version of this story overstated the number of children who have been hospitalized in Texas recently with COVID-19,” the Tribune said in a correction. “The story said over 5,800 children had been hospitalized during a seven-day period in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number correctly referred to children hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.”
“In actuality, 783 children were admitted to Texas hospitals with COVID-19 between July 1 and Aug. 9 of this year,” the correction noted of the six-week period.
Posting the glaring correction to Twitter, Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis commented, “That’s one heck of a correction.”
That’s one heck of a correction. https://t.co/UBBgV0OXXm pic.twitter.com/uhxkYABwR3
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) August 12, 2021
According to Fox News, the false number was shared by Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin, who later deleted her tweet.
“Unconscionable: Over 5,800 children in Texas were newly hospitalized with COVID-19 in the seven-day period ending on Aug. 8, a 37% increase from a week prior. where is the pro-life movement ?? it’s now a death cult,” Rubin tweeted on Thursday.
Media critic Steve Krakauer blasted the paper for the careless error and those on the Left propagating fear with the false information.
“TRASH,” Krakauer tweeted. “So the [Texas Tribune] updates their trash, lying, fear-mongering story about hospitalized kids, but what happens when you have trash columnists like Jen Rubin, whose tweet is uncorrected with the actual info? Never trust Texas Tribune, never trust Jen Rubin.”
So the @TexasTribune updates their trash, lying, fear-mongering story about hospitalized kids, but what happens when you have trash columnists like Jen Rubin, whose tweet is uncorrected with the actual info? Never trust Texas Tribune, never trust Jen Rubin https://t.co/cb4FoAH1nj
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) August 12, 2021
Washington Free Beacon executive editor Brent Scher underscored how far off the error was.
“We reported 5,800 in one week. It was actually 783 in 6 weeks,” he mocked the Tribune.
“I did the math here. The claim: 828 hospitalizations a day[.] Reality: 19 a day,” he emphasized. “Only off by about 43x.”
I did the math here.
The claim: 828 hospitalizations a day
Reality: 19 a day
Only off by about 43x.
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) August 12, 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this week updated its Florida COVID-19 case count, apparently in response to a public complaint from the Florida Department of Health, The Daily Wire reported:
Florida blasted the CDC for posting COVID-19 case numbers the Florida Health Department said were “false” and combined several days of data, “creating a scary graph misleading the public.”
At the time, the department, which resorted to posting its complaint on social media, said that they “anticipated[d]” a correction from the CDC.
“Wrong again,” the Florida DOH noted on Twitter. “The number of cases [CDC] released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record.”
The tweet referenced a South Florida Sentinel report, which alleged that Florida “hit yet another record number of new daily cases, reporting 28,317 on Sunday.”
[…]On Wednesday, the CDC acknowledged an issue with its case count, according to Fox News, and told the network it was updating its COVID-19 case tracker and “working with the state’s health department to correct the information.”
Related: CDC Corrects Florida COVID Data After Health Department Complains