While the free states of Texas and Florida triumph in the pandemic with cases on the decline, infections are rising in liberal states under Democrat governors once celebrated by the legacy press as crisis heroes, but Twitter doesn’t want you to know that.
According to a Fox News analysis of Johns Hopkins University data published Sunday, New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are responsible for nearly half of all coronavirus cases nationwide between March 29 and April 4. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York, however, are on track to suffer the worst of the latest surge as governors continue to embrace experimental lockdowns that traumatize residents and hollow out small businesses.
Over the last seven days, Fox News reported, relying on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Michigan has seen 390 new cases per 100,000 residents, Pennsylvania 221 per 100,000, and 206 per 100,000 cases in New York.
Fully open Texas and Florida reporting fewer COVID cases than Democrat-led Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York https://t.co/NOiZmg0nFu
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 25, 2021
On Twitter’s trending topics, however, the platform publisher editorialized the Fox News reporting. Although social media platforms claim they are not publishers, a summary of the trending topic written by a Twitter employee sows doubt over the low case numbers emerging from Texas and Florida. President Joe Biden railed against Texas for lifting a mask mandate as “Neanderthal thinking.” Florida never had a statewide mask mandate.
“A Fox News report says that fully open ‘Republican-led states including Texas and Florida are reporting fewer coronavirus cases than Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York’, but many point out that it fails to clarify that the data is heavily influenced by reporting and COVID-19 testing in each state,” the platform attached as a descriptor to the trending topic.
President Joe Biden’s envoy on climate, meanwhile, former Secretary of State John Kerry, trended on the platform with no description as news surfaced Kerry leaked covert Israeli operations in Syria to Iranian adversaries.
notice which trend receives a description. pic.twitter.com/fsmPW6i7km
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) April 26, 2021
While New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces investigations over deliberately undercounting coronavirus deaths in nursing homes ahead of his pandemic book tour, no evidence suggests governors in Texas and Florida have manipulated case numbers to hide infections.
