White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett created a baffling 'cubic model' showing coronavirus deaths would hit 0 by May 15. It turns out he used a basic Excel function for his controversial projection.
that forecasted coronavirus deaths hitting zero by May 15. It immediately sparked a massive backlash among economists when the model was posted Tuesday on the Twitter account for the Council of Economic Advisors.Instead, he says, it's supposed to be another method to illustrate a simple math formula used in Excel. He wanted to produce a graph mirroring the forecast of daily virus deaths from the Institute of Health Metrics of Evaluation at the University of Washington.
He described the model as one meant to level the swings of reported cases which vary each day, and he used "just a canned function in Excel, a cubic polynomial," according to the newspaper.The curve in the cubic model reaches its peak in mid-April and swoops back down through the end of May. The death toll from the virus surpassed 70,000 this week, and over a month has passed since there were fewer than 1,000 deaths. On Tuesday alone, over 2,000 Americans died from the virus, and the number of recorded infections is rising.the decision to publish the graph demonstrated the council was "being used as a mouthpiece for the administration and a political tool.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
White House plots breakup of coronavirus task forceThe Trump White House is planning to wind down its coronavirus task force in the coming weeks and instead ask agencies to take control of the response efforts
Read more »
White House to wind down coronavirus task forceDrs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci are still expected to be at the White House on a daily basis, but other members of the task force may be less physically present.
Read more »
White House may close its coronavirus task force this monthThe White House is considering shutting down its coronavirus task force by the end of May and handing responsibilities to FEMA even as some models project a sharp increase in COVID-19 deaths in the coming weeks.
Read more »
Americans deeply wary of reopening as White House weighs ending covid-19 task forceAmericans remain worried about returning to restaurants and stores, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found, as models forecast a more dire covid-19 toll and the White House weighs shutting down its coronavirus task force.
Read more »