Trust in the reported data of contagious diseases in real time is important for policy makers. Media and politicians have cast doubt on Chinese reported data on COVID-19 cases. We find Chinese confirmed infections match the distribution expected in Benford's Law and are similar to that seen in the U.S. and Italy. We identify a more likely candidate for problems in the policy making process: Poor multilateral data sharing on testing and sampling.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7487520 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109573 | DOI Listing |
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