Holland Reporter

State Rep. Mary Whiteford (R-Casco Township) said the governor’s administration has been using "broken" methods to address COVID-19 hospitalization data collection and reporting, and shes is calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to address the issue. 

The most recent change to collecting and reporting the data “undermines the last five months of data,” Whiteford said, according to the Michigan House Republicans website. This helped shape Whitmer’s use of executive orders.

“If the governor wants to base her unilateral rule-making on supposed data, she can’t skew the numbers. That’s not how science works,” Whiteford told Michigan House Republicans.

Rep. Mary Whiteford | Michigan House Republicans

Hospitals have been required to report their coronavirus data since early August by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Patient counts, confirmed cases and suspected cases are all mandated to be counted toward the data totals.

But combining all three numbers skews that coronavirus data, which makes it unusable compared to past data, which didn’t combine all three sets. 

Aug. 3 was the last day that only confirmed cases were counted for reported data, according to the press release. On that day, 460 Michigan residents were hospitalized with the coronavirus. 

But by Aug. 14, with the new changes in place, the data reported 675 coronavirus cases. This shows a 46% increase in the number of cases in Michigan within 11 days, which is misleading because "suspected cases" are included in the count. 

“That sounds staggering, but in reality, it is entirely deceitful,” said Whiteford, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, according to Michigan House Republicans. “The people of Michigan, the Legislature and our state’s health care industry need to see an accurate portrayal of the data. They must separate figures -- one for cases and one for suspected cases."

As a registered nurse, Whiteford is urging Whitmer to correct the change in how data is being reported.