The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted one mysterious data website to prominence, sowing confusion in international rankings

cnn.com ^ | May 19, 2020 | Scott McLean, Laura Perez Maestro, Sergio Hernandez, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Katie Polglase

[ransomnote]

ransomnote: Worldometer.com seems to the be SNOPES of demographic & statistical data sharing. It's rather humorous to see CNN posturing as if its standards are higher than that of Worldometer.

Excerpts:

Instead of citing Johns Hopkins, Spanish officials are now pointing to testing rankings from a data aggregation website called Worldometer — one of the sources behind the university’s widely cited coronavirus dashboard — and prompting questions about why some governments and respected institutions have chosen to trust a source about which little is known.

SNIP

The website claims to be “run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers” and “published by a small and independent digital media company based in the United States.”

But public records show little evidence of a company that employs a multilingual team of analysts and researchers. It’s not clear whether the company has paid staff vetting its data for accuracy or whether it relies solely on automation and crowdsourcing. The site does have at least one job posting, from October, seeking a volunteer web developer.

SNIP

The company shares the Dadax name with a Shanghai-based software firm. In March, both companies issued statements denying a connection. The Chinese Dadax said it issued its statement after receiving “many calls and emails” about the stats site. Worldometer, in a tweet, said it’s never had “any type of affiliation with any entity based in China.”

SNIP

IDs in the source code for Worldometer and the US Dadax’s websites link them to at least two dozen other websites that appear to share ownership. Some appear to be defunct.

SNIP

One Italian site displays Christmas poems and gift suggestions, like a bonsai plant (for her), or a plot of land on the moon (for him). 

 

[ransomnote]

PING

[bagster]

Haha. And these vaxtards talk about The Expose. Worldometer is clickbait and misinformation. Ban it. Now we get to say, "Why do you keep posting this crap?" to those dopes that think it's their covid bible.

Something is wrong with the world and lots of people in it.

[kiryandil]

As a data professional, I haven't wasted one minute looking at the "official" sources of Covid data.

It's a total waste of time.

There's HUGE amounts of money involved. Ergo, garbage data.

[humblegunner]

Now we get to say, "Why do you keep posting this crap?" to those dopes that think it's their covid bible.

You should have been doing that already.

Don't be such a timid little thing.

[bagster]

You should have been doing that already. Don't be such a timid little thing.

Oh, I already say it in a thousand different ways. And better. But it will be satisfying to quote you people back at you word for word.

[Travis McGee]

[BiglyCommentary]

I probably have posted at least 20 times in the threads where these numbers get posted: “Why do you keep posting this? The numbers stats are total GARBAGE.”.

[bitt]

p

[Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness]

Only thing Worldometer was good for was early on when the Diamond Princess data proved that the ‘fungus’ wasn’t an end of humanity scourge.

[Jane Long]

In Before the $hot $hills try to defend their bunk site.