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Epidemiology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of South Florida

2020

International Public Health

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Full-Text Articles in Epidemiology

The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Power Of Numbers, Jessica Ancker May 2020

The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Power Of Numbers, Jessica Ancker

Numeracy

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a deluge of news coverage of quantitative concepts. In this viewpoint, we provide examples of effective and poor quantitative communication by the professional news media as well as social media communicators. Effective examples include a number of online animations and engaging interactive simulations. Examples of poor quantitative communication include the widespread reporting of raw numbers rather than rates, failing to address uncertainty, not providing sufficient context for numbers, and not discussing the implications of false negative and false positive diagnostic test results. Educators can draw from this body of news to develop compelling quantitative literacy …