I've been asking myself "why would they inflate numbers" for a while now. The only thing I can come up with is that they made what may end up being a horrible decision as far as lockdown is concerned, and they are trying to justify said actions for a while.

I don't buy into the "taking away of freedoms" theory, which i suppose could be true. It also could be perpetuated in an attempt to swing favor against Trump but the whole world wouldn't be in on that.

I don't know why anyone would want to inflate the numbers but they do seem to be doing exactly that.

MSM means "main stream media"