Covid Daily Death Figures Misleading

[dave50]

Every day they give this figure but it says "death by any cause but tested positive for covid". So how do we know exactly how many died directly from covid? We don't but all the lock down maniacs will use these figures to justify their desire for a full national lock down and to hell with the economy.

[Old_Geezer]

This is well known.

[Peter Pedant]

we know this
the method of counting has changed
but quite honestly we know the general number

since I am treated lymphoma I wd be happy with
cause of death covid
contributing factor - lymphoma

I certainly wdnt turn in my grave

[Buenchico]

The three ways to calculate Covid-19 deaths are shown on the BBC website daily. (e.g. here's a screencap of today's summary: https://ibb.co/DCqsLwW ).

However it's actually the estimated R number that's far more important, as it gives a clearer indication of whether or not the rate of infection is being held at a manageable level. Here are the latest available figures:
https://ibb.co/MZCQfMR

[jno]

Wales is the place to be, then...

[Cloverjo]

I find Buenchico’s graph surprising as we’ve had very few cases in the SW.

[Buenchico]

It's not the number of cases that matters for the R figure, Clover, but how fast they're increasing.

For example, if there were only 100 infected people in the whole of your region, but they then passed the infection on to 130 other people, you'd have a R number of 1.3.

However if there were 100,000 infected people in your area, but they only passed the infection on to 70,000 people, you'd have an R number of 0.7.

[youngmafbog]

For goodness sake, the R number is an algorithm. Crap data in crap data out, it is a totally pointless number.

[Old_Geezer]

The R number, which even if accurate only indicates infection rates, is less important than the rate of hospital admissions as a measure for management. It would be great if everyone caught cov with no symptoms, and then were immune, hopefully for a long period. But that's presently being avoided by the government. And, of course, it's how the rate changes over time, rather than a single 'cases or deaths so far' figure, that gives an insight as to how things seem to be.