“Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been a major source of information during the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding policies and practices in many aspects of life. As such, it is imperative that the information be free of errors, or, if errors are made, that they are corrected quickly.
Methods: We sought to compile instances of numerical and statistical errors made by the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic by reviewing CDC publications, press releases, interviews, meetings, and Twitter accounts. Further, we catalogued mortality data from both the National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC COVID Data Tracker and compared reported results.
Results: We documented 25 instances when the CDC reported statistical or numerical errors. Twenty (80%) of these instances exaggerated the severity of the COVID-19 situation...
16 (64%) pertained to children alone, and 9 (36%) pertained to both children and adults. Of the 16 cases that included data pertinent to children alone, 15 (94%) enhanced the perceived risk of COVID-19 in children, and one exaggerated their risks from the COVID-19 vaccine. Of the 3 instances where the direction of the error was ‘mixed’, all 3 (100%) exaggerated risks to children and understated risks to adults.
Errors included basic vital statistics such as the number of deceased children. Thirteen (52%) involved mortality statistics…
Discussion: … These errors suggest the CDC consistently exaggerates the impact of COVID-19 on children. At the same time, the CDC has expressed significant concern about COVID-19 misinformation. In order for the CDC to be a credible source of information, they must improve the accuracy of the data they provide.”
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