AP tells staff to ‘avoid emphasizing’ COVID case counts amid shift in covering pandemic

The Associated Press is shifting in how it covers the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, no longer hyping the number of cases as the Omicron variant continues to infect both the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

In an article titled, “Omicron wave prompts media to rethink which data to report,” the AP cited COVID case counts and hospitalizations as “barometers of the pandemic’s march across the world” but that the latest surge “is making a mess of the usual statistics, forcing news organizations to rethink the way they report such figures.”

“The number of case counts soared over the holidays, an expected development given the emergence of a variant more transmissible than its predecessors,” the AP reported Wednesday. “Yet these counts only reflect what is reported by health authorities. They do not include most people who test themselves at home, or are infected without even knowing about it. Holidays and weekends also lead to lags in reported cases.”

Due to the nuances of how COVID tests are being administered, the AP suggested the number of cases can’t be added together and that the actual number of cases would likely be “substantially higher” than what’s being reported at a state and federal level.

“For that reason, The Associated Press has recently told its editors and reporters to avoid emphasizing case counts in stories about the disease,” the AP wrote. “That means, for example, no more stories focused solely on a particular country or state setting a one-day record for number of cases, because that claim has become unreliable.”- READ MORE