STEVE CAMERON BLOG: Crunch cereal, not numbers

Still here.

Just so you know, tomorrow I’m going to reference a very timely magazine article that examines how we talk to each other during this weird time.

Yes, one of the things I do every day (at least while stuck at home) is check on current events – and various other things – in stories I trust will be well-sourced and well-written.

However...

One of the things I will NOT do over breakfast is look at numbers.

You know, figures that somehow are supposed to tell me how the coronavirus is doing.

Have we spiked this week?

Why are deaths up in France while overall cases of COVID-19 seem to be going down?

These are matters which I cannot control, nor will they affect my daily life.

I won’t bother looking at the Dow Jones average, either.

Or check to see what the Fed might be doing.

Maybe this is heresy in a time of crisis, but I ignore the various charts and graphs – not to mention the endless “think pieces” that question if the virus that ravaged New York will attack the good folk of Chicken Crossing, Arkansas, with the same deadly gusto.

Some of you may know that I’ve spent a lot of years in sports journalism – and I’ll be doing a bit of that for The Press again soon.

One thing I know very well from sports, however, is that sometimes numbers can fool you.

Or you can fiddle around and make them say whatever you’d like.

It was Mark Twain who first said: “There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.”

Unless you’ve been self-isolating in a cave, you likely know that millions of people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, and far too many have died.

Those grotesque numbers will shoot up once the virus takes hold in India, where there are an estimated 170 million homeless, and the United Nations considers about half the population of 1.4 billion as “almost homeless,” or much, much worse.

Here in the States, the numbers don’t seem so terrible – almost routine, when compared to car fatalities or suicides.

Of course, a single statistic is meaningful, indeed, if you’re one of the afflicted — or perhaps it’s a loved one.

It’s all about context...

Do you really wonder about what’s happening in a state far away? Would you know if the numbers were just unfortunate or truly terrible? Would you even know if they’re accurate?

The answer to each of those three questions is probably: “No!”

So why stare at a graph that compares states by adjusted population, or whatever?

It’s meaningless, right in that moment.

There are so many more things you need to know, and almost all of them have to do with what’s going on at hone – in your city, your county, your state.

That information is available right here in The Press.

And it matters, you bet it does.

But the percentage of tests to cases to deaths in New Jersey in one day – when the next day might be completely different?

I’ll skip all that, thanks.

You’re welcome to join the blog. Any time, on any subject. Or with any opinion that doesn’t get us sued.

scameron@cdapress.com

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