It’s often been quoted “lies, damn lies and statistics”
Now I’m no statistician by any means, though I do uses statistical analysis in my role as an engineer. The problem with statistics is context. You can very easily take a simple measurement and draw a conclusion but be quite inaccurate through lack of taking into consideration the full gamut of contributory factors. This can happen in a number of ways. It can be a result of not knowing all of the factors, ignoring them out of laziness, assuming they’re insignificant or can be wilfully ignored to skew the result. Often the case with statistics for public audience, the data sets cannot be develop into in too much granular detail. How many of us would be willing to sit through 100 episodes of Panorama to thoroughly examine the statistical analysis of, well... anything. I’d be asleep in under ten seconds. It is a fact that 82.73% would be asleep by the end of the first episode.
So statistics that were given by media are really not particularly robust information. I’m sure we all know that. But covid is definitely real and people definitely die of it and with it. My father a case in point. With or of it, hardly matters. The absolute 100% statistical fact is, he’s dead.
We don’t all die from it of course. There are covid survivors on this forum. I count myself among them, though that’s only 99% certain as I haven’t yet finished my isolation, but I definitely feel that I’m over the worst of it. My partner is suffering a little more than I and has lost her sense of taste. I’m very fortunate that I’ve never been particularly weakened by flu viruses.
Of course if I should die within the next 28 days of something non covid related like being run over by a bus and my death certificate says I died of covid, I’ll be sure to let you all know
