New York Times again misstates COVID-related deaths in children, issues correction
WASHINGTON (TND) — The New York Times has now twice overstated numbers regarding the lethality of COVID-19 and related conditions in children, issuing corrections to its original reporting both times.
The first incident occurred in October, when the Times significantly overstated the number of child hospitalizations from COVID-19 by 837,000.
On Thursday, New York Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilliclaimedthousands of children had died from multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), something that can develop in youth who are diagnosed with COVID-19.
Mandavilli wrote “nearly 4,000 children aged 5 to 11” had died from MIS-C during the pandemic. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of a total of 8,210 cases of MIS-C during the pandemic, just 68 resulted in death.
“An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the numbers of children aged 5 to 11 with multisystem inflammatory syndrome,” the Times' correction reads. “About 4,000 have been diagnosed, not died, with the syndrome.”
Studies have shown Americans, especially those who identify as Democrats, overestimate the risks associated with COVID-19. Some have pointed to liberal media coverage for stoking that fear.
Liberal comedian Bill Maher blasted media outlets on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in September for “scaring the sh—t” out of people during the pandemic.
“I have to cite a survey that was in The New York Times, which is a liberal paper so they weren't looking for this answer,” Maher told Kimmel. “The question was: ‘What do you think the chances are that you would have to go to the hospital if you got COVID?’ And Democrats thought that was way higher than Republicans,” Maher continued. “The answer is between 1% and 5%. Okay? Forty-one percent of Democrats thought it was over 50%, another 28% thought it was 20 – 49%. So, 70% of Democrats thought it was way, way, way higher than it really was. Liberal media has to take a little responsibility for that. For scaring the sh—t out of people.”
The severity of COVID-19 infection among young children was a point of contention throughout the pandemic. But over time, research determined that, relative to adults, children were far less at risk from dying of COVID.
Though not a member of the media, liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor inaccurately claimed in January that "over 100,000 children" were "in serious condition" due to COVID-19, which sparked an outcry from critics accusing the Obama-appointed justice of spreading misinformation.
“Don’t spin me when it comes to my health,” Maher said during one of his opening monologues last spring. “Over the past year the COVID pandemic has prompted the medical establishment, the media and the government, to take a ‘scared straight’ approach to getting the public to comply with their recommendations. Well, I’m from a different school, give it to me straight doc, because in the long run that always works better than ‘You can’t handle the truth.’”
