Are People Getting Sick Staying Home Alone? That's Not What a Misinterpreted Survey Said

Jim Naureckas

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says it's "shocking" that most Covid-19 hospital patients "had been staying at home" (CNBC, 5/6/20)—but did his survey really find that?

"Who Are the New Covid-19 Hospitalizations in New York?" asked a WNBC headline (5/6/20). "The Breakdown Is Worrisome."

"‘The People Were at Home’: Cuomo Details Surprising Survey Results," was how the story—based on a May 6 press briefing by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo—appeared in the New York Times (5/6/20). CNBC (5/6/20) had: "Cuomo Says It’s ‘Shocking’ Most New Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are People Who Had Been Staying Home."

CBS (5/7/20) went with: "66% of NY Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are People Who Stayed Home," explaining: "About two-thirds of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in New York became infected even though they said they'd been observing lockdown restrictions."

As I've been saying (FAIR.org, 4/11/20; CounterSpin, 5/1/20), this kind of reporting is crucial; it's vital that the public know how we're getting infected so that we get a better idea of how we can protect ourselves. These reports, unfortunately, were based on a confusing presentation by New York's governor, and it's likely that they only confused the public further. It would indeed be worrisome if people were ending up in the hospital despite observing lockdown restrictions, but there's no reason to think from the information provided that that's the case.

First off, the 66% figure has nothing to do with people staying home. That comes from a question about "source of admission," which asked where people were living before they were hospitalized—whether at "home," a nursing home, assisted living facility, jail/prison, homeless and so on. That doesn't say anything about whether people stayed home.

This question doesn't provide any information about whether hospital patients stayed at home.

Another, more ambiguous question asked about "transportation method in daily life": 9% said personal automobile, 4% public transportation, 2% car service and 2% "walking." Eighty-five percent, however, said "N/A, working from home and other." (Another question indicated that 83% of those hospitalized were unemployed or retired.) This suggests that rather than maintaining that they never went anywhere by car or by foot, the respondents may have been indicating specifically what transportation they used to get to work. (That participants may have found this question as confusing as journalists did is suggested by a note that "45% left [it] blank in survey.")

This question was deemed "not applicable" if the respondent was not working outside their home.

Was the transportation question about work transportation? FAIR associate Neil deMause tried to get clarification on the survey, and was told by Jill Montag, public information officer of the New York State Department of Health, "The information released yesterday is the information currently available." (She did, however, send a set of the slides used in Cuomo's presentation.) But if that interpretation is correct, then the survey provides no information about whether those hospitalized with Covid-19 were going to the store, to parks, to parties or anywhere else. So the insight it provides on how people are getting infected is quite limited.

The report does provide evidence that few hospital patients are getting infected at work, because few of them were working. It's important to remember, though, that this survey does not include people who were infected with the coronavirus but not hospitalized, who are presumably younger and healthier, and thus more likely to be working, than those who ended up in the hospital. (59% of patients in the survey were 61 or over.) The survey did not seem to ask about who hospital patients lived with, or whether and how their housemates may have been infected—so it may be that workplaces are important vectors for spreading the virus to people who may be passing it on to people who are more vulnerable. The survey doesn't say.

The moral Cuomo drew from the survey was:

It reinforces what we've been saying, which is much of this comes down to what you do to protect yourself.... Everything is closed down, the government has done everything it could.... Now it's up to you. Are you wearing a mask, are you doing the hand sanitizer?

That's a convenient message for a government official: We've done our job, now you do yours. People's individual behavior, however, has much to do with the context set by government: Not just what businesses are closed (many remain open), but what services are provided and how social-distancing is enforced. Government still has much to do—including providing the public with guidance like this, and better than this, on how we are getting infected.

Meanwhile, the role of journalists is not to just pass along official pronouncements, but to subject them to scrutiny. Reporters largely failed to do their job on this briefing.

Featured image: New York Times image (5/6/20) of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.