One of the more frustrating parts of trying to report on the spread of the coronavirus in Michigan is the question about the reliability of the data.

We fault no one. Thousands of health care professionals in the private and public sector are testing tens of thousands of patients across the state for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Add simple human error to such a complex situation, and there are bound to be gaps and mistakes.

It happened locally recently. The state on April 3 reported one case in Presque Isle County, the first in The News’ four-county coverage area. But officials at District Health Department No. 4 said they could neither confirm or deny the validity of the case, and the county’s emergency management official said it was a data error. The state removed the Presque Isle County case from its database on April 4.

As of Friday, there were two confirmed cases in Presque Isle County.

That wasn’t the only questionable number, though. Early this month, the state reported no deaths in Cheboygan County, while local health officials reported one. Early on in the outbreak in Michigan, the state reported a Charlevoix County case, the first in northern Michigan, but, while that patient’s address was Up North, the patient was diagnosed downstate and hadn’t returned home after being infected.

Again, issues are bound to happen in such a complex and fast-changing environment, but we hope one of the lessons learned from all this can be the development of a more uniform and clear mechanism for local health professionals to report data to the state and the state to report data to the public.

This is a scary time for everyone, with lots of confusing information coming from the state and federal levels, the waters further muddied by conspiracies and inaccuracies spreading on social media.

Solid, trustworthy, easy-to-understand data can provide an anchor of reality to help people cope.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)