New York Times issues correction after wrongly reporting 4,000 children have died from COVID-related condition

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The New York Times issued a correction Thursday after falsely reporting the number of children who have died from a COVID-related condition in a piece about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending a third dose of the vaccine to kids. 

The piece by Times health and science reporter Apoorva Mandavilli initially declared that nearly 4,000 children ages 5-11 died, but in reality that number was diagnosed with a coronavirus-related syndrome. 

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"But record numbers of children were hospitalized during the Omicron surge this winter. Nearly 4,000 children aged 5 to 11 have been died from a Covid-related condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome during the pandemic," the Times reporter wrote in the original story. 

The New York Times issued an alarming correction Thursday after falsely reporting the number of children who have died from a COVID-related condition.  (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

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The Gray Lady eventually issued a correction noting the children were diagnosed, not deceased. 

"An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the numbers of children aged 5 to 11 with multisystem inflammatory syndrome. About 4,000 have been diagnosed, not died, with the syndrome," the paper wrote beneath the updated report.  

The Times was swiftly mocked on social media for the "unbelievable mistake," as one user put it. It was at least the second major correction to a Mandavilli story related to children and COVID in recent memory. 

Last year, the Times issued a massive correction after severely misreporting the number of COVID hospitalizations among children in the United States by more than 800,000. 

A report headlined "A New Vaccine Strategy for Children: Just One Dose, for Now," also by Mandavilli, was peppered with errors before major changes were made to the story. The Times initially reported "nearly 900,000 children have been hospitalized" with COVID since the pandemic began, when the factual data in eventually-corrected version was that "more than 63,000 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 from August 2020 to October 2021."  

The New York Times issued a correction related to children and coronavirus last year, too.  (WCAT LLC)

Mandavilli also botched actions taken by regulators in Sweden and Denmark and even bungled the timing of a critical FDA meeting. 

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"An earlier version of this article incorrectly described actions taken by regulators in Sweden and Denmark. They have halted use of the Moderna vaccine in children; they have not begun offering single doses. The article also misstated the number of Covid hospitalizations in U.S. children. It is more than 63,000 from August 2020 to October 2021, not 900,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, the article misstated the timing of an F.D.A. meeting on authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children. It is later this month, not next week," the lengthy correction stated in full last year. 

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.