Just A Thought About The Numbers Game.

[needawin]

The "government" can always repeat ad nauseam the EXACT number of people employed and how few are jobless. The mantra is non stop on tv.
Strange then how after 5 weeks or more of a virus they are unable to give an accurate number of deaths in NHS workers and people in care homes.
In "Care Minister" Helen Whateleys case she has told us repeatedly, and just again this morning, that she will have the figures next week!

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe the health sector/department have more important things on at present ?

[fiction-factory]

For the latter point it's because they need to wait for death certificates. Sometimes the death isn't reported for 10-15 days. Sometimes the cause of death isn't clear and a decision needs to be made about whether to include Covid on the death certificate.. The care home figures are now included in the graphs but with a time lag- so the current graph shows all deaths including care homes and other settings up to about 2 weeks ago.

The NHS workers one should be more straightforward- these are reported as they happen so I can't see the reason for any delay- they should at least be able to give figures up to say 10th April

[fiction-factory]

I don't know exactly what Helen Whatley said though- was she talking about Care Home deaths only or NHS staff deaths as well (not gher domain?)?

[bednobs]

they base the unemployed on those who are claiming a certain benefit, its very easy to add up how many people are claiming that benefit on a certain date. as ff says, there is a lag with deaths for al sorts of reasons (as an example, my close relative died on JAN and is STILL with the pathologists with no death certificate issued, so wouldnt appear on any list looking at certain causes of death yet

[andy-hughes]

Employment is easy to assess - you are either in work or you are not in work.

Death from a virus is far more unpredictable - there can be any number of factors that can lead to death, only one of which may - and that's the point, it may be due to the virus.

Extrapolate that over the numbers of infected or potentially infected people, and the stats vaporise before your eyes.