We’re publishing a second post about today’s wildly misleading claim by the CEO of NHS England that the number of patients being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is currently 14 times greater than it was this time last year, this one by the Daily Sceptic’s in-house doctor. He is a hardened former NHS consultant and it takes a lot to shock him – but even he was taken aback but just how inaccurate this statement was.
Earlier today, Amanda Pritchard, the CEO of the NHS, made a statement to the effect that there were currently 14 times as many patients being admitted to English hospitals with COVID compared to this time last year. The purpose of this article is not to point out that this statement is factually incorrect – it’s so obviously incorrect that there have already been plenty of other commentators running fact checks.
Rather, I aim to quantify how incorrect that statement was and consider why the person running the NHS could have made such an egregious error of fact. So far, I have not seen a formal retraction or explanation from Ms Pritchard.
Firstly, the figures as we see them on the official NHS dashboard. In graph 1 I have plotted the number of patients admitted to hospital each day and the number of diagnoses of Covid made in hospital from April to November. The brown line is 2020 and the blue line 2021. It can clearly be seen that currently there are fewer patients being admitted and diagnosed in hospital with Covid than at this time last year. The only point at which one could possibly stand up an argument that there were 14 times as many patients being admitted in 2021 compared to 2020 would be the middle of August. In mid-August 2020 there were roughly 40 patients per day being admitted to English hospitals with Covid. In mid-August 2021 there were about 650 a day – this is approximately 14 times the 2020 figure.
My guess is that someone panicking in NHS England looked at Graph 1 (which they clearly have access to) and trotted out the line that Pritchard was referring to the numbers in August, giving the pathetically mendacious excuse that “these are the latest data we have”.
For clarity, and to illustrate the degree to which the ’14 times’ statement is so deliberately misleading, Graph 2 shows the latest data relating to COVID admissions from the community. COVID admissions to English hospitals from the community have been falling day on day for the last week, mirroring the decline in community testing numbers.
Graph 3 shows the total number of Covid inpatients in English hospitals. Is that what Ms Pritchard was referring to, rather than daily admissions? If so, that doesn’t help her. There are just under 7,000 patients in English hospitals testing positive for Covid – slightly lower than this time last week. This time last year there were over 11,000. Further, it should be borne in mind that the ‘Primary diagnosis data’ published when Sajid Javid took over as Health Secretary clearly shows that the NHS has been deliberately conflating the number of patients testing positive for Covid in hospital with the number of patients in hospital suffering from acute Covid by approximately 25%. The number given as patients in hospital with acute Covid was 5,369 on November 2nd, approximately half the number of patients in hospital with Covid time last year – not 14 times as many.
I invite readers to consider the counterfactual. What would the official NHS reaction have been, had the Daily Sceptic published a piece claiming that there were currently 14 times fewer patients being admitted to hospital than at this time last year? How might the BBC have reported such a clearly false statement?
And yet, here is the link to the BBC daily Coronavirus page – five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening.
No mention on the BBC of Ms Pritchard’s interview, nor the subsequent commentary exposing the misleading nature of her assertion. From Amanda Pritchard herself there hasn’t even been a Clintonesque ‘sorry, I misspoke’ moment.
I have commented before about the misleading use of figures by the NHS and the corrosive effect such behaviour has on public trust in institutions and broadcasters. Today marks a new low.
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What This Full Fact publishing that AZ and Pfizer vax were fully trialled and approved? Oh and that they are in worldwide production and distribution so that’s even more alright?
Last paragraph, posted as a reply 4th November to DS article about Joe Bidens Mask Mandate
I was going to leave it as just a response to yesterday’s post script but to lead with these scoundrels?
No wish to criticize To us record as a journalist but . . .
Yes, and murder is no longer murder once the murderer is loose in the community to murder whom he likes.
I don’t think she got her facts right about the Nuremberg code only applying to experimental drugs either but will leave that to the experts.
Was trying to edit from within a large public building but lost internet.
Last line should read,
I have no wish to criticize Toby’s record as a journalist . .
Full Fact are to 2021 what the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was to 1941 Germany. Both simultaneously hilarious and deeply sinister.
I was surprised to see Toby using them for his postscript for an earlier article
I’m not familiar with Full Fact but new I’d posted the above before
A while back I was informed by Full Fact that the mRNA injections were Absolutely Not Gene Therapies.
Beyond me to be honest. Also this is well out of my normal domestic timescale. Because meds and wot not.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210611174037.htm
Cells contain machinery that duplicates DNA into a new set that goes into a newly formed cell. That same class of machines, called polymerases, also build RNA messages, which are like notes copied from the central DNA repository of recipes, so they can be read more efficiently into proteins. But polymerases were thought to only work in one direction DNA into DNA or RNA. This prevents RNA messages from being rewritten back into the master recipe book of genomic DNA. Now, Thomas Jefferson University researchers provide evidence that RNA segments can be written back into DNA via a polymerase called theta, which could have wide implications affecting many fields of biology.
Is this not the Reverse Transcription part of the RT-PCR testing scam – I understand that the PCR test cannot test RNA molecules/particles so has to convert then first…to DNA. My non scientific mind tells me if the “re-writing” process works one way, it can do so in “other ways”.
She knows the difference between ”approved” and ”licensed” no doubt.
“A wizard never gets the numbers wrong, Frodo Baggins. He says the numbers he precisely means to.”
It is way past assuming ignorance or stupidity. They know exactly what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
One of the many legacies of the criminal way Sars2 was handled by the regime was to totally destroy all faith and trust in government and public health officials, murdering respect for these institutions along the way. It will take generations to recover, if ever.
That’s not a bad thing. People should not trust the government. They should keep a close eye on them and question their every move. If you were to hire someone to paint your house, would you just hand them the money and leave on vacation until they’re done? Or would you make sure they do their job properly? Why would running a country deserve less care and attention than painting a wall?
The problem in England, at least, is that like the police, the government was very much of the people. Ridiculed at times, begrudgingly respected, generally accepted as constituted of people just like us. Now, like the police, it has become external, a monstrous villain working against the people. This ends badly for the people, but of course, massively worse for the government. It’s sad seeing the elite of a country with 1000 years of peace under its belt working so desperately for that end.
To me, this is seeing the history of our ruling classes through very rose-tinted glasses…
I’m not letting anyone off the hook, but we must compare the English ruling classes to those of other states. Were English people of centuries past treated better than people of other states? Of course. The English gave the world habeas corpus, Common Law, and a host of other things that made life in England freer and more peaceful than most other places during some very dark eras. The narrative that the English have always been a miserable people oppressed by a corrupt ruling class is not only untrue but a communist trope that leads inevitably to where we are now.
Bless you. Such blind faith in the establishment narrative.
Now … lets get back to the history of this country …
That is precisely why governments should not be trusted. You cannot just rely on the fact that the government will never abuse its power. Sure, maybe you trust the guys in power currently, but how about the next guys? How about the ones after that. This is the age old problem of the benevolent dictator. It is widely agreed that the best form of government is a dictatorship with a benevolent dictator. Someone that uses absolute power only for the good of everyone. Besides the obvious issue of where would you even find such a person, anyone can see that this situation will not last. This is why the US Constitution has a second amendment. Think about that. People who wanted nothing but the best for their country decided to give their people the means of overthrowing the government.
Very much agree.
I would doubt if many members of the great Britain public would remember Sars2 was ever a thing.
“Today marks a new low.”
Indeed, because it’s hard to see how anybody could make an honest mistake that is so profoundly counter to not just the specific actual facts, but the entire surrounding trend.
Is it really conceivable that someone in Pritchard’s position could be unaware that covid numbers in hospital are so significantly lower than last year’s, and declining, let alone have such an absurdly false picture of the position as she stated?
No it’s not. It’s part of the current fusillade of propaganda to get the double jabbed triple jabbed. And if they don’t then say goodbye to Christmas. It’s blackmail pure and simple.
In an artificially constructed pandemic, numbers reflect political goals, not public health.
Got it in one!
Is it April Fool’s Day? This, after Hancock’s DT article?
The important issue is not so much the fact of this gross error (and one that also raises the fundamental issue of ‘Covid’ diagnoses).
It is the sharp delineation of how mythology has run away with itself – to the extent that a key figure could make such an egregious statement.
It should have been blindingly obvious that this figure was wildly inaccurate – but the organization itself is entirely wrapped up in its own myths that nobody said ‘Hang on – this is data so shit that even a moron can see through it and rip it to pieces.’
How Could the Head of the NHS Got the Covid Hospital Admissions Figures So Wrong?
Easy… She knowingly lied and used out of date stats to suit the narrative she wanted to portray. Her job was to stand on TV and manipulate people into coming forth for a 3rd stab. So she bald face lied about hospitalisations in order to scare people into wanting another dose.
These people are liars. What else over the last 2 years have these “experts” and “scientists” been lying about?
We are being scammed and manipulated.
They can always use the correct figures to argue vaccines are working.
Really?
80%+ jabbed and we are no closer to ending this “pandemic”. Rates of infection higher in the stabbed than the unstabbed…
Excess mortality higher even removing covid. The panic to stab evryone over 50 asap shows they are not working (at least in the way we are lead to believe they should).
I don’t think it’s a case of getting the figures wrong. In my opinion, it’s a concerted effort by the NHS hierarchy to push the narrative that Covid is on the rise, despite data showing the opposite, to push their agenda to gain more funding and further restrictions on society. I read an article on the BBC local pages from this weekend where the head of Addenbrooke’s was stating they were struggling to cope due to cases doubling. I could not find any ONS data to support this claim. But there it is, on the BBC, without challenge. And most people will read this and completely accept it, which will then lead to a level of support for further measures.
I struggle to accept the level of propaganda being pushed by all MSM media at present. I also struggle to accept the majority of people’s acceptance of said propaganda. Although listening to James Delingpole with CJ Hopkins did explain peoples rationale behind the acceptance. It’s now their reality and it’s going to take something monumental to pull them back out of it. A mass awakening perhaps. Whatever that is, it won’t be pretty or kind, it will be horrific and painful for them.
It’s a conflicting dilemma, I tend to believe the opposite of anything full fact say, But I want to believe this time, I really do.
Let’s see. Oxford history graduate, daughter of a bishop. I’ll just go ahead and assume that she’s also sister-in-law, mistress, or dominatrix of a cabinet Minister or three.
How could she get it so wrong? Simples, she’s spent all her working life in the NHS, which has a lot of previous in this area; think deaths in maternity units etc., etc. In her recent past she has been brown nosing her predecessor so that she gets the top job and he was the NHS liar in chief, having learnt his craft under Tony Bliar.
How could she get it so wrong? Perhaps because she believes everything her stooges tell her, without doing her own research. Perhaps it’s time better qualified people were employed in these high-paying places. Then at least they can talk out of their own b…. hats rather than someone else’s.