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Fresh Takes

The Second Wave Mirage

US media is excited about a potential “second wave” of cases coming from places like Florida that largely avoided the first wave. The New York Times, for example, frets that New Yorkers, having suffered higher rates of coronavirus deaths than any other state and, indeed, any other country on earth, could now suffer from infected Floridians.

Alas, it turns out that “second wave” may just be a bureaucratic mirage. Essentially, Florida’s bureaucrats are “catching up” on their paperwork by recording old deaths. This inflates the number of “newly reported” deaths even as actual new deaths are falling almost to zero.

Parts of the US media have become too partisan to conduct responsible fact checking anymore. This is not something to emulate, and a prospective “second wave” is no time for political games from media.

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