UK media outlets reported that COVID hospitalizations are “14 times higher” than at this time last year, despite this being demonstrably false.
Both Sky News and ITV reported the comments of NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard, who used the figure during a plea for people to take booster vaccines.
Pritchard said the NHS was “running hot” and warned of difficult months ahead.
Bizarre situation where Sky and ITV are leading with Fake News pic.twitter.com/vC4Wu8n1Dd
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) November 8, 2021
However, it was subsequently revealed that she had been using old data to make the claim that hospitalizations were 14 times higher than this time last year.
The NHS later claimed that Pritchard “was referring to the most recently published statistics in August” to make the claim.
However, the latest hospitalization numbers are available on the NHS website and show nowhere near the “14 times” level claimed by Pritchard.