State, county COVID-19 numbers often in dispute

The Frederick County Health Department reported its 100th death from COVID-19 Friday afternoon. But those looking at the statistics released by the Maryland Department of Health would see far fewer deaths for the county.

This is due to a discrepancy in how the state and county health department report deaths.

While there are often good reasons for discrepancies in data sets, such as the ones found in the state and county data, they can affect how the public perceives data, said Charles Seife, professor of journalism at New York University.

When presented with mismatching data, people may choose what data they believe, which could lead to a potentially dangerous situation, Seife said.

“The more discrepant sets of data that you have, the more differing signals that you get, the more latitude that people have to believe … whatever they want to believe, rather than what is actually externally happening,” Seife said.

Read more | The Frederick News-Post