Since Michigan first launched its coronavirus data page last month, journalists across the state have worn out the refresh button on their Web browsers every afternoon, waiting for the latest numbers on the spread of the disease.

That’s what we at The News were doing last Friday around 3 p.m., when the state reported a case of COVID-19, the disease caused by virus, in Presque Isle County. It was the first confirmed infection in The News’ four-county coverage area. We quickly put together a short story for our website.

We would later find out the state may have reported that case in error, and our critics were all over Facebook, claiming “fake news” and saying they couldn’t trust us.

Here’s why that isn’t true.

First, health officials are right to say we should act as if the virus is here, whether it’s confirmed or not. We should practice social distancing, wash our hands, sanitize our homes, and otherwise protect ourselves as if our life depends on it, because it may.

But, in the absence of solid information, people tend to fill the void with worrisome rumor. We provide information — on pandemics, car crashes, council meetings, or anything else — to give people something solid to wrap their emotions around.

That’s why we posted a story immediately to TheAlpenaNews.com and shared it to our Twitter and Facebook accounts when the state reported a local case.

Our next call was to District Health Department No. 4, the public health agency serving Presque Isle County and the local authority on the virus spread. Officials there said they could neither confirm nor deny that a Presque Isle County resident had been infected.

Local health officials didn’t say the state was wrong, only that they couldn’t say for sure the state was right.

The Health Department sends tests to the state, and the state informs the Health Department of positive results.

But the state’s data also comes from multiple sources, from public and private clinics and hospitals and health departments. The data is based on patients’ home address, not where the test is given. A patient from Up North might test positive while visiting downstate, but the state’s numbers would still show an Up North infection, as happened with the first Charlevoix County case.

In short, it was entirely possible last Friday that the state had simply failed to inform the local Health Department directly. The state’s records might be wrong, but the Health Department’s could be wrong, too.

After speaking with the Health Department, we updated the story and headline online to say the state reported a Presque Isle County case that local health officials couldn’t confirm. We reposted to social media.

Around 10 p.m., when the story was already laid out on the front page and nearly ready for the press, someone shared with News Lifestyles Editor Darby Hinkley a Facebook post from the Presque Isle County Emergency Management Office saying the state’s report was an “error in documentation.”

That would be first time anybody had said definitively the state’s numbers were wrong.

But, when we found that post, we saw the Emergency Management Office attributed its information to District Health Department No. 4, which still said it could not confirm nor deny the state’s numbers. And the state’s numbers still listed a Presque Isle County case. We had received no new press release from the Health Department.

Still, we again updated the story online to add in the Emergency Management Office’s comments and reposted to social media. We also updated the story for print, so our readers on Saturday morning knew everything we knew: The state reported a Presque Isle County case, the Health Department couldn’t confirm, and the county emergency leader said it was a documentation error.

I was sitting at home at 3 p.m. on Saturday, wearing out my refresh button again, when the state’s new numbers showed zero cases in Presque Isle County. I quickly threw together a story for our website and posted to social media.

Maddeningly, the first comment under the link to the story on Facebook said something like, “This is why you can’t trust your local paper.”

I’m not sure what’s not to trust.

We provided all of the information we had as soon as we had it. We told readers where we got that information, all of which was readily available for them to verify.

That’s what we always do. If folks want to trust the Health Department over the state, that’s their prerogative, but we give them all the tools to make that decision.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.