With the media poised to pounce on negative Covid headlines at any chance they are given, it is more important now than ever to make sure that those headlines are accurate.
Inaccurate headlines can cause an uproar, as we found out last week when it was falsely reported that an astonishing 30% to 35% of Big Ten college athletes that were positive for Covid also had myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle. It was an astonishing figure that may left the world thinking: if 30% to 35% of college athletes were getting it, surely everyone else was, too.
“When we looked at our COVID-positive athletes, whether they were symptomatic or not, 30 to roughly 35 percent of their heart muscles are inflamed … and we really just don’t know what to do with it right now. It’s still very early in the infection. Some of that has led to the Pac-12 and the Big Ten’s decision to sort of put a hiatus on what’s happening,” Penn State Doctor Wayne Sebastianelli said on Monday.
Reports like the one in USA Today read: “…cardiac scans of Big Ten athletes who contracted COVID-19 showed ’30 to roughly 35 percent of their heart muscles’ indicated symptoms of myocarditis.”
The figured sounded enormous to us; in fact, we almost did a write up on the headline earlier this week but decided to hold off to see if more information would become available.
And, lo and behold, more information did become available. Turns out the earlier headlines simply weren’t true.
In what can only be described as a barrage of corrections from places like The Washington Post and CNN published less than 48 hours from the original report, it was revealed that the doctor was “unintentionally citing outdated numbers”. – READ MORE
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