Covid-19 Hospitalization figures are what matter, followed as they will be by numbers of deaths
Media is highlighting the wrong set of stats. The lead should be the number of daily reported new hospitalizations, and the charts being featured should highlight the seven day moving average of new hospitalizations, instead of the number of new cases. Yes I know that increases in hospitalizations are widely covered too, but the statistical lead remains the daily reports of rising new case numbers in various states. That is the first, and often the only, chart the public actually sees flashed on their screens.
Reports that focus on new case numbers are highly susceptible to orchestrated disinformation campaigns. They come in two forms. First is the classic Trumpism that we only have more cases now because we now conduct more tests. The second form of disinformation builds on the first. It's the assertion that Covid-19 is essentially harmless to 99% of the public. It argues that with more testing going on of course we'll find lots of people walking around with the virus, just like people are walking around with the common cold, and that should be seen as reassuring.. Not only is Covid-19 not spiraling out of control under these disinformation scenarios, but we are actually proving that it's really no biggie for the vast majority of Americans.
Both disinformation campaigns fall flat on their faces when confronted with evidence of rapidly rising hospitalization rates from Covid-19 however. People don't get hospitalized because they get positive test results, they get hospitalized because they got really sick, with or without a test. Ultimately, of course, all of the lies will fall to pieces as this pandemic marches forward, making a total mockery of all denials. Ultimately Covid-19 death rates will accelerate also (it's just beginning to happen) but deaths are the ultimate lagging indicator. Hospitalizations come much earlier, and every America understands that even the most benign outcome hospitalization is a serious matter, one that most of us go many years without having to undergo. Disinformation must be countered as quickly and effectively as possible, lives are being lost every hour, and stats on rising case numbers are not a powerful enough tool.
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They naysayers will still say people are being hospitalized for reasons other than COVID and being lumped in with COVID statistics, as they are saying re: deaths. 
