New York Times Covidian MANGLES Facts Again: 4,000 Children Dead of COVID Syndrome?

Apoorva Mandavilli was elected the New York Times’ chief Covid reporter after a woke mob at the paper forced out experienced science correspondent Donald McNeil in early 2021 because of ridiculous accusations of racism while chaperoning students in Peru.

Why not just throw out an experienced science reporter in the midst of a pandemic. (A cynic would say “because he was optimistic about the vaccine rollout in October 2020.”)

Mandavilli’s reporting has been characterized by exaggeration of the dangers Covid presents. Particularly, her numerical errors point in the same way. Each one grossly exaggerates the risk and death that Covid poses to children. In a recent story, the Centers for Disease Control recommended vaccine boosters for children 5-11.

Posted online Thursday, it eventually appeared, with a correction, in Friday’s print edition: “C.D.C. Advisers Recommend Pfizer Boosters for Children 5 to 11.”

However, this winter’s Omicron surge saw record numbers of children being admitted to the hospital. Nearly 4000 children between 5 and 11 years old have been diagnosed as having a Covid-related disorderMultisystem inflammatory syndrome was a term used to describe the effects of the pandemic. Some studies have shown that children with mild illnesses may suffer symptoms for several months.

Although this paragraph seems exaggerated enough to be misleading, the original claimed that there were 4000 children. “aged 5 to 11 have died From“The condition, also called MIS-C. The real number, which includes all children, is actually 68. Overall COVID deaths for Americans aged 0-18 is currently about 1,200.

The passage was fixed online after a Twitter protest. The story appeared with a correction in Friday’s edition that was less brusque than Mandavilli’s reaction to her error on Twitter: “… Diagnosed with, not died. It was fixed”

Mandavilli also made a similar gross numerical mistake involving children and covid, a mistake that was also in the alarmist direction, in October 2021, as NewsBusters reported under the headline: “NYT Forced to Fix Claim 900,000 Kids Have Been Hospitalized with COVID.” The real number was 63,000.

Side note: Where are the editors when these blazing mathematical errors cross their desks?

Critics have come down on Mandavilli’s often bizarre Covid stances. In May 2021 she tweeted that even investigating the possibility the Wuhan coronavirus did not originate at a “wet market” but escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was racist: “Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here.” (The tweet was later deleted.)

In August 2021, she wrote a news story that favored avoiding friends and wear masks in perpetuity, rather than getting a vaccine booster shot.