Miami Herald runs ‘misleading’ headline suggesting 901 Florida COVID deaths occurred in single day
The Miami Herald ran a story that is being knocked by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ press secretary as “sensationalistic and dishonest.”
On Thursday, the paper raised eyebrows with its jarring headline, “Florida COVID update: 901 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history.”
The headline was widely shared among DeSantis’ critics, including an army of MSNBC stars and staffers.
However, while the headline indicates that the 901 COVID deaths mark the state’s “largest single-day increase” in CDC data, the reality is that those 901 deaths did not occur in a single day.
“Florida on Thursday reported 21,765 more COVID-19 cases and 901 deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data,” the report began. “All but two of the newly reported deaths occurred after July 25, with about 78% of those people dying in the past two weeks, according to Herald calculations of data published by the CDC. The majority of deaths happened during Florida’s latest surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant.” – READ MORE
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