I mean, I agree with you, but it's journalism, not a research paper. This article states uncategorically, front and center, that the source of the information,

I mean, I agree with you, but it's journalism, not a research paper. This article states uncategorically, front and center, that the source of the information, CDC, won't publish this stat themselves due to "limitations in the data". The "analysis" is pretty obvious how AP did it, from the text. Again, I feel your pain every day, but this particular article seems fine to me! They aren't pretending to possess secret information and thus be able to have secretly derived insights. It's designed to be read in the course of 2 minutes, tops. Within that category, it's far far better than the 99% of drivel out there. It's a shame to fit it into that class of junk journalism.