Journalists are generally really bad at math. We’re good with words. Not so good with math. Some of us joke that it’s why we’re journalists. We love research, asking questions and getting answers, but numbers too often defy us.
Yet we don’t have to be mathematicians or rocket scientists to get this:
In the wee hours of Friday, the United States had more than 6,000 coronavirus deaths and by Friday evening seemed well on its way to 10,000 deaths.
Just the day before on Thursday, the coordinator of Trump’s coronavirus task force, Deborah Birx, stood before the nation in a briefing with a slide showing a high-arcing COVID-19 mountain – the worst-case scenario: 1.5 million to 2.2 million deaths if Americans and the government did nothing to stop the virus.
For the numbers-challenged among us, let’s put it in words. Six thousand early Friday and possibly upward of two million in coming months.