Kansas Policy Institue CEO criticizes Dr. Lee Norman for ‘deceptive’ map
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – One of Kansas’ top health experts is at the center of controversy after people said he manipulated a coronavirus graph to deceive people.
Dr. Lee Norman with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment showed a chart with the average daily coronavirus cases in Kansas. It compared counties that require masks with ones that don’t.
The CEO for the Kansas Policy Institute, Dave Trabert, is criticizing Dr. Norman because the numbers on the “Y” axis uses two different measurements. He said if they used the same scale, the lines would be much closer together and they would both show a decline in cases.
Dr. Norman responded on Twitter and said the data is clear. He said it does show that cases dropped in mask-mandated counties and remained level in non mask-mandated counties.
Trabert said he manipulated the graph to make the difference look more dramatic.
“It’s an honest mistake for people to look at a chart like that, your eye typically goes to the two colored lines on the chart,” said Trabert. ” You don’t read the axis definition on the left and right, typically they’re aren’t two axis, they’re only used to seeing one.”
KSNT News reached out to Dr. Norman for a comment, but did not get a response.