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It is Time to Stop Obsessing Over Covid Figures

by Toby Young
29 August 2021 12:07 PM

There’s a good piece in the Mail on Sunday today questioning whether it’s sensible for the Government to continue updating the Covid dashboard every day, given how obsessed we’ve all become with the data. In January, the dashboard attracted 76 million views in a single day!

They’re the figures that have ruled our lives for the past 18 months; decided our freedoms; deepened our fears.

The Covid dashboard published on the U.K. Government website has offered the public a window into the state of the U.K.’s epidemic, displaying daily Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths, both nationally and regionally, since April 2020.

Some people have avoided looking at the figures – published at 4pm every day, including weekends. But a surprising number of us have become secretly addicted to poring over them.

Back in January, the dashboard attracted 76 million views in a single day. In more recent months, the dashboard has offered a source of celebration, thanks to the addition of the vaccination tally.

Scientists and politicians alike agree the U.K.’s Covid dashboard has been a resounding success, allowing the public to draw their own conclusions about the level of threat the virus poses to them.

It’s also been a crucial yardstick for how stretched the NHS is, providing exact figures of how many Covid patients are in each hospital around the country.

But now, with nearly eight in ten Britons protected against getting seriously ill, thanks to the vaccine, are daily Covid figures still necessary?

After all, as Health Secretary Sajid Javid said of the virus earlier this summer: “We cannot eliminate it, instead we have to learn to live with it.”

There is growing concern from experts that the endless figures do more harm than good. Some have declared the tally of daily infections “completely meaningless”.

“It shouldn’t really matter how many people are catching the virus – as long as they are protected,” says Professor Jackie Cassell, public health expert at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Other scientists have warned of the psychological impact of constant reminders of how many people are still catching Covid.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: CoronaphobiaCovid DashboardHysteria

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29 Comments
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Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
3 years ago

Not if the purpose is to generate fear

29
0
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago
Reply to  Major Panic in the jabby jabbys

It is time to start protesting

Parents Fight Back Against Morally Bankrupt NHS Plans To Jab Their Kids Without Parental Consent

https://odysee.com/@WEGOTAPROBLEM:f/Parents-Fight-Back-Against-Morally-Bankrupt-NHS-Plans-To-Jab-Their-Kids-Without-Parental-Consent:5?

One this is true, Mr We Got A Problem never beats about bush

Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
(also Wednesdays from 2pm)

Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

12
-1
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago
Reply to  Lockdown Sceptic

Vaccinating children will allow them to continue education ‘without disruption’, Sage adviser says 

This why we need to get protesting as much as possible before it’s too late Next events:

5.30pm Tuesday 31st August
Roundabout (County Lane/Jigs Lane N) Outside Tesco Superstore 17 County Ln, Warfield, Bracknell RG42 3JP

5.30pm Friday 3rd September
Loddon Bridge, (Winnersh Garden Centre/Showcase Cinema)
Reading Rd, Winnersh, Wokingham RG41 5HG

9
-1
RW
RW
3 years ago

The Corona dashboard (and associated download options) has been a useful source of information for providing some real data instead of just shrieking headlines. This is in contrast, to, say, the situtation in Germany where nothing even remotely useful was ever published.

Other scientists have warned of the psychological impact of constant reminders of how many people are still catching Covid.

Nachtigal ick hör dir trapsen — other statistic jockeys running in the corona race have warned that the psychological impact of their alarmist proclamantions is very much diminished by the fact that almost nobody ever catches COVID and that this is plainly visible to anyone bothering to take a look at it. For as long as said other statistic jockeys are not safely removed from anything resembling a position of power — preferably in isolation cells, so that they can finally have a taste of their own medicine — publishing this data should continue.

5
-1
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago

Of course the dashboard should be published if people are still interested. To do otherwise would be akin to censorship. What is important is to explain the criteria used to classify infection and any variability due to false results.
But I agree “infection” is fairly meaningless as an indicator of seriousness at this stage. More important is the number of severe COVID disease and that requires a doctor to diagnose – as it should.

Last edited 3 years ago by Think Harder
11
-1
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Think Harder

Aggregated figures at sensible intervals are useful, but we don’t need daily figures which just provide the media with material for alarmist headlines.

8
0
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  CynicalRealist

Alarmist headlines aren’t usually based on anything factual, rather some interested party’s most opportunistic interpretation of some fact wrt “what will happen in future”. That’s not going to stop by removing means enabling independent assessments.

Eg, yesterday, some GP reportedly demanded travel restrictons for the univaccinated should cases continue to grow[*]. At the moment, some pretty basic analysis of the available data suggests that they’ll stop growing soon. But that’s not what the people banking on growing case numbers will tell anyone. Their usual performance would be to claim that cases number are still growing at least for a week or so after they’ve been demonstrably falling.

[*] So much for case numbers being irrelevant. They’re very much relevant because they’re used as justification for policy decisions. In an ideal, alternate universe this wouldn’t happen. But it is and it’s not going to go away by wishing it away.

Last edited 3 years ago by RW
3
0
George Morris
George Morris
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Actually cases in England are already falling because the schools are on holiday. UK cases overall are going up because in Scotland (where cases have been falling for 6 weeks) cases are now rising. I wonder why?

0
0
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  George Morris

Did you sleep below some rock for the last month and accidentally managed to miss the sell-by date for the July-soundbite?

Hint: It doesn’t match what has happened in between.

0
0
BS665
BS665
3 years ago

Figures should never have been published. Censorship was needed to prevent hysteria, whereas ‘positive’ propaganda coupled with tight control of the media should have been enacted. You dont report on casualties in ww2, and this was billed as our ‘war’.

6
-1
bluefrog
bluefrog
3 years ago

76 Million views in a single day – according to government figures … likely a transcript error when copying the data between excel spreadsheets, or just blatent propaganda. Two issues with the number, firstly that’s more than everyone in the UK in a single day … hmmm. Secondly the goverment web site would crash well before that, most sites would struggle with around 80,000 hits a minute for every minute of the day. which is roughly what you’d need to get 76 million views in a day (counting waking hours).

11
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zners
zners
3 years ago

Haha that pic made me laugh

4
0
PatrickF
PatrickF
3 years ago

Only one figure is important. How many people died FROM Covid.

17
0
cubby
cubby
3 years ago
Reply to  PatrickF

We’ll never know. To properly decide if someone died from covid, they must have had covid symptoms (i.e. ‘flu symptoms), have tested positive of covid with a PCR cycle rate of 25 or less and not died of a possible underlying condition like heart failure or another chronic disease. This would require the patient’s own GP to confirm or even an autopsy.

16
0
SweetBabyCheeses
SweetBabyCheeses
3 years ago
Reply to  cubby

They used to certify flu deaths without testing people though didn’t they? I’m not saying your criteria is wrong, just that Doctors in the UK don’t test you for stuff in the UK unless they actually NEED to know.

2
0
mojo
mojo
3 years ago
Reply to  SweetBabyCheeses

Usually flu became pneumonia and it was this the certificate recorded alongside any other ailment that caused the patient to be admitted to hospital.

3
0
186NO
186NO
3 years ago
Reply to  cubby

RT-PCR targeting one genomic fragment – ie the Cormen-Drosten testing con – does nothing to determine the presence of the “virus” because it cannot test for the whole sequence. The key is the presence of the S1/S2 spike protein, which does the damage and causes an inflammatory response in every cell it invades. Which GP is going to risk suspension by demanding autopsies for every patient who dies in hospital ( from or with) – remember they are one of the two settings which formed the majority incidences where people have contracted this chimeric “virus”? Last I read, ad nauseam, is that PCR process can not differentiate between live or dead/inert matter.

0
0
mojo
mojo
3 years ago
Reply to  PatrickF

And I suspect even that figure will be a lie

3
0
186NO
186NO
3 years ago
Reply to  PatrickF

..with no co-mordibities

2
0
chaos
chaos
3 years ago

Toby still pretending not to see the conspiracy.

This website is now starting to generate revenue from ad sense. Kerching.

Meanwhile in the Telegraph ‘editorial viewpoint’ they advocate jabbing children without parental consent using a law designed to allow girls under 16 access to contraceptives without parental knowledge or consent – a rule the tories introduced in the 80’s.

If parents roll over in September I am afraid the war is lost. And if Rockerfeller man-boy Boris introduces twice weekly testing in schools (as has been discussed) in September, by October we will be back in masks and lockdown.

And if people roll over again for this, the next step will be to hunt down and incarcerate the unvaxxed. Force entry in to their homes; hold them down and jab them with the Rockerfeller Gates’ bio weapon.

15
-1
mojo
mojo
3 years ago
Reply to  chaos

I agree. We are heading towards the terrible roads of communism’s utopia. Only this time the knock on the door will not bring a shot to the head but a fatal jab in the arm.

6
-1
Epi
Epi
3 years ago

I don’t think I ever obsessed over Covid figures in fact I stopped looking at the daily death porn when it became clear they were just Government propaganda junk. As for cases I really don’t know why you lot are still playing into their hands. These are not people ill in bed but false positives from a debunked testing system that should never be used. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP IT!!!

Last edited 3 years ago by Epi
10
0
mojo
mojo
3 years ago
Reply to  Epi

I agree. This marxist government has changed the meaning of words in order to keep a project fear running since around 2010. A case is a hospital admission to a ward. Not an outpatient. A case is definitely not a PCR tested human or an ‘asymptomatic’ human. However, the language against rising positives with false testing equipment has been brutally propagandised.

this then leads to the faux scientific advisers and modellers able to lie to the public whilst filling their pockets with tax payers money. They are effectively Quacks, Charlatans, and Criminals. We need to stop pandering to them

7
0
Epi
Epi
3 years ago
Reply to  mojo

Hear, hear!

0
0
mojo
mojo
3 years ago

76m seems an unnaturally large amount. There are allegedly 70 million people in this country. Over half of them don’t care as long as they have their bread and circuses. That means half the country are hitting on the site at least twice every day. Therefore we see immediately the figures give us false information. Therein lies the problem with any data coming from government. It cannot be trusted.

Anyone who then believes the injection is working when we now have 97% of admissions to hospitals being jabbed (according to Daily Expose analysis of PHE figures). We also have a rise in deaths after ‘short illnesses’ which I believe is a bigger story to investigate.

7
0
brachiopod
brachiopod
3 years ago

Latest re-analysis of the various ‘not a vaccine’ trials shows that the efficacy was an illusion shown to the unwary by the choice of highly selective ‘endpoints’.
To illustrate – shooting people in the head is an effective cure for cancer, not a single person shot in the head subsequently died of cancer 100% effective!
The decision to choose ‘severe covid’ as the endpoint deliberately removed ‘all cause’ mortality and morbidity resulting from the ‘not a vaccine’, if all cause mortality and morbidity are examined the ‘not vaccines’ are net harmful to human health.
Lying and cheating seems to be the default business model of big Pharma.

On a different anti-big Pharma tack, a sad article on Radio Wales this morning about a father commemorating his daughter who died a year ago aged 21 from sepsis – an eminently treatable condition that continues to kill millions annually, but these treatments just like ambulatory Covid treatments is blocked and stymied by big Pharma and its ‘useful idiots’ in the MSM.

3
0
richlyon
richlyon
3 years ago

The graphic accompanying the Daily Mail article advertising its dashboard shows deaths in July from COVID-19 to be 3,876. Deaths in July on the government dashboard, as computed from the difference in cumulative differences on 1 August and 1 July, are only 1,667.

Even a graphic attempting to show that the impact of COVID-19 in relation to other diseases is overstated, overstates the impact of COVID-19.

1
0
George Morris
George Morris
3 years ago

I am a Covid stats obsessive. I log onto the Gov UK daily summary every day, then the Spectator Data summary then the Daily Telegraph then the BBC (which comes out a bit later. There are significant differences in how the various sites compute their seven day rolling averages. The only reasonably up to date one is the Daily Telegraph’s – the others all contain information which is almost a fortnight old. From this it is apparent that the key to the numbers is the school year and the testing which accompanies it. I live in Moray, Scotland- the least infected part of the UK but ‘cases are now rising rapidly. Why? because the kids have gone back to school and are being tested every five minutes. At the same time if you separate the daily cases into England only you can see that almost everywhere they are falling – because the kids are now on holiday. I’m not sure how you use this information but I do think that in this business three days is a long time and using seven day averages which are almost a fortnight out of date is unhelpful. SAGE, tghe government and anyone who writes articles will be way behind the trend.

1
0
Nicole
Nicole
3 years ago

I never read the figures; have no interest. Wouldn’t know where to look anyway? Never had the app, don’t watch BBC news.

2
0

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