The CDC claimed in a leaked PowerPoint presentation a few weeks ago that COVID-19 is as contagious as chicken pox:
This graphic from the @CDCgov shows just how contagious the COVID Delta variant is, on par with chicken pox pic.twitter.com/svKwL404G0
— Hayley Wielgus (@HayleyWielgus) July 31, 2021
This was, of course, widely reported at the time:
'Very worrisome': CDC document says Delta variant as contagious as chicken pox @ZekeEmanuel @DrJeanneM https://t.co/lOIQaLWPhY
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 30, 2021
And then a panic occurred:
Internal CDC Report Calls Delta Variant As Contagious As Chicken Pox
“The document shows the variant, first detected in India, is more contagious than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu, and smallpox.”https://t.co/AOSVuxZTNe pic.twitter.com/HCn8nmDLtE
— Scary Mommy (@ScaryMommy) July 31, 2021
But now we read that the CDC is wrong and that COVID-19 is nowhere near as contagious as chicken pox:
You might have heard that the delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox. Not so. But it's likely the most contagious respiratory virus known.
This chart shows how delta variant’s transmissibility ranks among diseases like chicken pox, Ebola and mumps: https://t.co/Wj1apoA1t0 pic.twitter.com/JmP9ULFndM
— NPR Goats & Soda (@NPRGoatsandSoda) August 11, 2021
From NPR:
In a leaked report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a surprising claim about the delta variant of the coronavirus: It “is as transmissible as: – Chicken Pox,” the agency wrote in a slideshow presentation leaked to The Washington Post on July 26.
Chickenpox is one of the most contagious viruses known. Each individual can spread the virus to as many as “90% of the people close to that person,” the CDC reports.
Is the delta variant that contagious as well?
The short answer is no, says evolutionary biologist and biostatistician Tom Wenseleers at the University of Leuven in Belgium.
You know, maybe it’s time for an IG investigation of the CDC:
I want to know more about the provenance of the leaked CDC document that *emphasized* the comparison to chickenpox and made a lot of other claims (e.g. about vaccinated transmission) that spun uncertain evidence about Delta in a very scary light.https://t.co/ohLXsxc7Ni
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 11, 2021
Were they trying to make it seem like they had very robust evidence for their reversal on masks? Were they trying to get people's attention?
Or, say, did the slides represent a minority/heterodox view within the CDC, some individual who disagreed with the agency's take on Delta?
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 11, 2021
A final variation: maybe the CDC thought it needed to get a message out about Delta and but it assumed it would be tempered by the time the public heard it, when instead e.g. the New York Times amplified all the scariest parts and played down conflicting evidence and caveats.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 11, 2021
And maybe, for the safety of all Americans, the CDC should be suspended from social media until they put some controls in place to make sure this type of misinformation isn’t shared in the future?
The internet isn't real life and neither are NYT headlines, but I've met multiple not-online people in real life whose understanding was that Delta is as contagious as chicken pox *even among vaccinated people.* The CDC document and the reporting on it were just abysmal. https://t.co/PKDhhAT6He
— Kevin 👐 Glass (@KevinWGlass) August 11, 2021
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