Politician Calls Out Media For Not Reporting Just A Few COVID Patients Hospitalized In His County

A Jackson County Commissioner is calling out the media for not reporting the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19.

In a July 16 Facebook post, Commissioner Corey Kennedy wrote, “COVID-19 update for Jackson County as of Thursday 7/16/20 at 5PM that you won’t read in MLive or hear on the news: There are currently 2 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in all of Jackson County. That’s the part the press leaves out of almost all of their reports. There’s over 160,000 people here in Jackson county and as of today 31 have died from it since it all began several months ago.”

“Hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are what are most important to track yet most media outlets fail to do that or break it down statistically,” Kennedy posted.

Jackson County was one of the areas Michigan Chief Medical Executive Joneigh Khadun highlighted in a July 9 press conference for having a “steady increase” in COVID-19 cases.

MLive posted a July 15 story with the headline: "Jackson County sees 61 new cases of coronavirus halfway through July" that didn't post the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients.

The hospital in the city of Jackson – Henry Ford Allegiance Health – stated it has three hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of 10 a.m. July 16.