[ATTW-L] Georgia's misleading graph

[Steve]

Yes, all,

Georgia has been leading the disinformation campaign for a while now. It's been disturbing to watch from here in Savannah, but it reached the point in April whereby the state data could no longer be trusted for accuracy. Tweet of mine, from April 21:
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And the Georgia Department of Health has been changing it's narrative daily with the way it repurposes the data. In half their confirmed cases they don't even know the race or ethnicity, so if you're not white, you don't know you have higher chances of falling prey to the virus.

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Was watching the GA Dept of Health site daily, early on, in March, and became astonished at the shifts it was taking, but then in April just abandoned it completely, as it fails in all areas for discernible accuracy, and am not looking for wrong or misguiding numbers during a pandemic. Life is business a usual in Georgia with steady traffic and very little visible change in behavior.

Best,

Steve

#StayHome

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Steven John Thompson, PhD

Professor, Communication, Journalism, and Speech

University of Maryland Global Campus

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Wednesday, May 20, 2020 2:33 PM, Russell Willerton <russell.willerton at gmail.com> wrote:

> What Kathy said.
>
> Here's some commentary from Alberto Cairo that is relevant as well.
>
> http://www.thefunctionalart.com/2020/05/about-that-weird-georgia-chart.html?m=1
>
> Regards, Russell
> Department of Writing and Linguistics
> Georgia Southern University
>
> On Wed, May 20, 2020, 1:58 PM Northcut, Kathryn <northcut at mst.edu> wrote:
>
>> And thousands of Tech Com alumni and students of alumni across the planet thought of you when we read that article!
>>
>> Good to hear from you.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Kathy
>>
>> Kathryn Northcut, PhD
>> Interim Vice Provost
>> Academic Support
>>
>> 105 Norwood
>> (573) 341-4390
>> northcut at mst.edu academicsupport.mst.edu
>>
>>> On May 20, 2020, at 12:36 PM, Dragga, Sam <Sam.Dragga at ttu.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> A striking example of a misleading column graph is a short-lived item from the Georgia Department of Public Health listing COVID-19 cases in five counties across a 15-day period.  The days were not displayed in chronological order from left to right and the five counties were in different orders on different days: the two errors created the impression that the number of cases was declining dramatically, possibly leading officials and citizens to make unsafe/unwise choices.
>>>
>>> The misleading graph from May 10 has been deleted, but you’ll find a copy of it and the new corrected version at
>>> https://www.gpbnews.org/post/georgia-s-gaffe-prone-covid-19-dashboard-useful-if-you-know-where-look
>>>
>>> Sam
>>>
>>> Sam Dragga
>>> Professor Emeritus, Texas Tech University
>>> Editor, Technical Communication
>>> sam.dragga at ttu.edu
>>> 1-806-543-6099
>>>
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>>
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