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Coronavirus

Seedy Ron said:
Is a test of any value until you get the result?

Do you think they're presented how they are to suggest we're getting that many results every day?
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I think the only thing the government are in control of and responsible for is the capacity. If they have the capacity for 200k tests and people don't use them, that's not on them.
 
This is a fine example of media shortcomings during this. Pym is the BBC's Health editor, yet he tweets this out, gaining far more interaction than his messages usually do.

Basic maths says that the 7 day average increases if the daily figure 7 days ago is lower than the daily figure now. As this is deaths by day of reporting, not deaths by day of occurrence, the fact that it was bank holiday last week and therefore Tuesday’s number was artificially low, the rolling average was bound to increase slightly today. It does not mean (as this tweet implies) that the number of people dying every day has started to increase.

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, reported by someone who should know better and then even worse, retweeted by at least one MP.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1267850274548441089
 
scaramanga said:
I think the only thing the government are in control of and responsible for is the capacity. If they have the capacity for 200k tests and people don't use them, that's not on them.
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Even if I agreed with that, which I don't, that'd make it an entirely pointless metric to keep trotting out.
 
JerusalemMan said:
This is a fine example of media shortcomings during this. Pym is the BBC's Health editor, yet he tweets this out, gaining far more interaction than his messages usually do.

Basic maths says that the 7 day average increases if the daily figure 7 days ago is lower than the daily figure now. As this is deaths by day of reporting, not deaths by day of occurrence, the fact that it was bank holiday last week and therefore Tuesday’s number was artificially low, the rolling average was bound to increase slightly today. It does not mean (as this tweet implies) that the number of people dying every day has started to increase.

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, reported by someone who should know better and then even worse, retweeted by at least one MP.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1267850274548441089
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and has one person called this out in the replies?

its small things like this that make you lose the will to read/listen to media etc comment
 
P.D. said:
I have some sympathy for counting the postal tests in the overall count, presumably when they post them out they also need to allocate lab testing capacity for those tests so the results can be returned. If people don't send them back then there's little they can do about it but the capacity still needs to be there and allocated out to them.

I expect in time they can get an average of the amount returned per day and adjust accordingly knowing a certain percentage won't come back.
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i agree, but it will not stop those who like to bitch making a meal out of it.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
Would it not make more sense to publish the count from the labs, rather than tests that have been dispatched - i.e. how many tests the labs have actually processed? The number of tests sent out can still be used to allocate capacity but it doesn't have to be the count that is published in the testing statistics.

Also (general question) the number of people tested suddenly disappeared from the daily stats recently. Was there ever an explanation for that or has it been re-instated (I haven't been following the briefings/news so much in the past few days). A cynic might think it was an attempt to massage the figures.
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They should show all the stats but then it becomes quite a big slide. I mean if they post 25K tests out and only get 10K back then they still have to allocate capacity and resources to test a further 15K just in case they are posted back so it's fair to include them somewhere.

Better would be to highlight the number of postal tests not being returned at all or at least the average percentage.

I agree they should say how many people are tested each day, before there was a huge gap between people being tested and total tests - maybe 60-70%, no idea why so many people need 2 tests but it was probably getting a bit embarassing so they removed it.
 
JerusalemMan said:
This is a fine example of media shortcomings during this. Pym is the BBC's Health editor, yet he tweets this out, gaining far more interaction than his messages usually do.

Basic maths says that the 7 day average increases if the daily figure 7 days ago is lower than the daily figure now. As this is deaths by day of reporting, not deaths by day of occurrence, the fact that it was bank holiday last week and therefore Tuesday’s number was artificially low, the rolling average was bound to increase slightly today. It does not mean (as this tweet implies) that the number of people dying every day has started to increase.

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, reported by someone who should know better and then even worse, retweeted by at least one MP.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1267850274548441089
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Completely agree with your general point on the misrepresentation of the data.

The only defence I can think of in this instance is that it might not be the worst message for certain people to be hearing right now - those flouting the guidelines or intending to do so.

Highly questionable as to whether that would have been the motivation for the post, and even then wouldn't necessarily make it right, but it's the one silver lining I can see to it.
 
JerusalemMan said:
This is a fine example of media shortcomings during this. Pym is the BBC's Health editor, yet he tweets this out, gaining far more interaction than his messages usually do.

Basic maths says that the 7 day average increases if the daily figure 7 days ago is lower than the daily figure now. As this is deaths by day of reporting, not deaths by day of occurrence, the fact that it was bank holiday last week and therefore Tuesday’s number was artificially low, the rolling average was bound to increase slightly today. It does not mean (as this tweet implies) that the number of people dying every day has started to increase.

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, reported by someone who should know better and then even worse, retweeted by at least one MP.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1267850274548441089
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure what the point of the tweet is, as you say there's no context to it and no figures have been provided. Seems like a pretty uneducated tweet for someone who is the BBCs health editor.
 
P.D. said:
I'm not really sure what the point of the tweet is, as you say there's no context to it and no figures have been provided. Seems like a pretty uneducated tweet for someone who is the BBCs health editor.
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Indeed.
It's not sad. It's a statistical near-certainty based on how figures are reported and the impact of a holiday upon that.
It's not interesting because it doesn't indicate anything other than what a little thought should show is already known.
 
I sit at home reading the government’s figures, and watching the press briefings and wonder ‘Does anyone actually believe this brick?’ - and then come on here (increasingly rarely) to realise, yes, they do.

50,000 dead (at least), not much sign of the death count slowing down (2 deaths in Italy by comparison yesterday) and no proper track and trace system in place.

But, hey ho - five months in, the PM has this morning announced that he’s “going to take control” of the situation. Excellent - although I wonder what he’s been doing since January.

Let’s hope he makes a better job of it than of today’s PMQs.
 
Jesus this government is clueless at times.

So they won’t help support the aviation till they have exhausted all avenues - but then have a go at airlines for cutting costs/jobs
 
Mikey10 said:
I sit at home reading the government’s figures, and watching the press briefings and wonder ‘Does anyone actually believe this brick?’ - and then come on here (increasingly rarely) to realise, yes, they do.

50,000 dead (at least), not much sign of the death count slowing down (2 deaths in Italy by comparison yesterday) and no proper track and trace system in place.

But, hey ho - five months in, the PM has this morning announced that he’s “going to take control” of the situation. Excellent - although I wonder what he’s been doing since January.

Let’s hope he makes a better job of it than of today’s PMQs.
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Genuine question - are Italy reporting deaths in a way that's comparable to our revised reporting method yet?
 
Mikey10 said:
I sit at home reading the government’s figures, and watching the press briefings and wonder ‘Does anyone actually believe this brick?’ - and then come on here (increasingly rarely) to realise, yes, they do.

50,000 dead (at least), not much sign of the death count slowing down (2 deaths in Italy by comparison yesterday) and no proper track and trace system in place.

But, hey ho - five months in, the PM has this morning announced that he’s “going to take control” of the situation. Excellent - although I wonder what he’s been doing since January.

Let’s hope he makes a better job of it than of today’s PMQs.
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I don't think people on here are blindly believing anything, more debating different points and general consensus seems to be large parts of it have been mishandled, small bits have been good and for others there's mitigating circumstances or conflicting opinion.
 
Mikey10 said:
I sit at home reading the government’s figures, and watching the press briefings and wonder ‘Does anyone actually believe this brick?’ - and then come on here (increasingly rarely) to realise, yes, they do.

50,000 dead (at least), not much sign of the death count slowing down (2 deaths in Italy by comparison yesterday) and no proper track and trace system in place.

But, hey ho - five months in, the PM has this morning announced that he’s “going to take control” of the situation. Excellent - although I wonder what he’s been doing since January.

Let’s hope he makes a better job of it than of today’s PMQs.
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Parklaner81 said:
Genuine question - are Italy reporting deaths in a way that's comparable to our revised reporting method yet?
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Ok, not easy to find a definitive answer to that. In the meantime, I'm going to assume not.

This however certainly seems to suggest your information on Italy's most recent death count is faulty.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
 
Mikey10 said:
I sit at home reading the government’s figures, and watching the press briefings and wonder ‘Does anyone actually believe this brick?’ - and then come on here (increasingly rarely) to realise, yes, they do.

50,000 dead (at least), not much sign of the death count slowing down (2 deaths in Italy by comparison yesterday) and no proper track and trace system in place.

But, hey ho - five months in, the PM has this morning announced that he’s “going to take control” of the situation. Excellent - although I wonder what he’s been doing since January.

Let’s hope he makes a better job of it than of today’s PMQs.
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I'm not sure Boris gets the point of PMQs.
 
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