Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 8, 2025

Swabbing the Urban Environment - A Pipeline for Sampling and Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Environmental Reservoirs
Published on: April 9, 2021
Benford's Law and COVID-19 reporting
Christoffer Koch1, Ken Okamura2
1Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2200 North Pearl Street, Dallas, TX 75201, United States.
Abstract:
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.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Pareto Chart
The Pareto chart is named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who described the Pareto...
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Pie Chart
In a pie chart, the central angle, the arc length of each slice, and the area are directly proportional to the quantity or percentage it represents. Some real-world examples that can be depicted using pie charts include marks obtained by students...
Principles of Disease Surveillance
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Contingency Table

