Misleading Graphs: COVID-19

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In May 2020, the Georgia Department of Public Health released the following graph:

Georgia misleading covid graph 2020.png

1.  Read the text printed above the graph.  What does it claim to show?

2.  This graph became the subject of widespread ridicule, and was quickly withdrawn.   Can you see why?

3.  What lesson would you draw from this episode?

 

In an interview with Australian journalist Jonathan Swan that aired on Monday, August 3, 2020, President Trump showed Swan a page with some bar graphs.  Trump said they provided evidence that the US was doing well with COVID-19.  The following exchange took place:

Swan:  “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”

Trump:  “You can’t do that.”

Data as of August 5, 2020 (WHO) # deaths # cases population deaths as proportion of population (Swan) deaths as proportion of cases (Trump) cases as proportion of population
USA 154,952 4,678,610 331,002,651
South Korea 302 14,456
51,273,605
Germany 9,168 212,022 83,810,860
 
Total reported to WHO 696,147 18,354,342 7,803,00,000

4.   Was Trump correct to tell Swan, "You can't do that"?  Why or why not?

5.  Fill out the last three columns of the table.  What does each of the three measures tell you (in words)?  How does the US stand on each of them?

6.  Choose the measure that you find most important or interesting, and construct a bar graph for it.  Think carefully before deciding on how to scale the numerical axis.

NOTE:  The data in the table were obtained on 8/5/2020 from :

World Health Organization

Worldometer

 

Both sites are updated in "real time" so you will get different numbers when you access them.   

7.  Choose another country that interests you, and fill in the blank row in the table.

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