"It's not much of a difference" is a terrible excuse. This isn't about the percentage points they were off, this is about how such a thing looks in the public.

"It's not much of a difference" is a terrible excuse. This isn't about the percentage points they were off, this is about how such a thing looks in the public. When you get a warning from a gov agency that you shared outdated data that just looks terrible. Just don't do anything in a press release that could even remotely look like you're trying to cheat with your data. It's a terrible idea in a situation like this.