This morning I received an email from a British researcher warning me that the data on this graph was dubious. Below you will see the chain of email I exchanged. I decided to keep this on my blog with our emails as a significant disclaimer. They include a link to a CNN news report that reveals that Worldmeter has no association with John Hopkins University despite their claim to the contrary.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2645529/?utm_source=embed
Dear Harry,
The data does not match the figures at the source Worldometers. The studio refuse to provide contact details for the ‘author’ of the chart, whose given Twitter handle does not exist. I suspect this is advertising using inaccurate data. I have asked the Flourish Studio to remove it. Best, Noel
Dr Noel F Cass,
Research Fellow
Institute for Transport Studies,
University of Leeds,
*
Noel,
Thank you for your note. I will place it above the graphic which is alarming. I would like you to explain further in just what way the graphic conflicts with Worldmeter’s data. Further please explain who Worldmeter represents.
I am impressed that you tracked my site down and thank you for the heads up about dubious information. But if I am part of the problem with my few thousand readers I am nothing compared to the site I found this on Facebook.
Good luck putting the cat back in the bag.
Harry Welty
Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives
*
Dear Harry,
Thanks for the reply. I had no idea who you were! I just googled the data visualisation and contacted everyone who had reposted it. I have myself deleted my repost of it, which included the exact figures that a friend had compared between the Worldometer site data and the figures in the visualisation, for e.g. maternal deaths, alcohol deaths, flu. Every ‘cause of death’ that she checked differed from the data in the site which the visualisation said was the source. In every case, the numbers in the visualisation were smaller than in the source data. The ‘author’ of the visualisation does not appear to exist from a search for his name. The studio refuse to provide a contact.
Best, Noel
*
After a quick search, the Worldometer site seems suspect!
Which Facebook group did you find the visualisation on?
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/05/world/worldometer-coronavirus-mystery/
Best, Noel
*
Noel,
Fascinating.
In CNN’s reporting one analyst said the information from the aggregator seemed generally accurate. It also noted that mistakes accrued in the graphic and that it had a preference for the biggest reported numbers and that John Hopkins with it’s more carefully sourced data had no association with Worldmeter as it claimed.
As a researcher yourself you to originally posted this. You are to be commended for contacting others who followed your example. That said the visualization is spectacular and possibly only exaggerated. It is too bad it is poorly sourced because in our country our President convinced many people the corona virus would disappear with the summer. This graphic contradicts that dangerous message.
I will post this conversation between us as a disclaimer.
Harry
