How about this for a near-perfect clickbait headline? 
And from the Independentā¦
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Hi, all. Apologies for my long absence.
Regarding the opening post, the table regarding mentions of a symptom on a death certificate and the underlying cause is something I wrote about in an article published a month ago. https://koiosmasterdata.com/covid-19-numbers-have-meaning/
My background is data quality, I am not a statistician, but obviously I am interested in comparisons of data and correlation. One of the points I made was the pointless International comparison of total deaths without a clear definition of whether these deaths were with COVID-19 or from COVID-19, and another point was the lack of a unit of measure, ie deaths per million of population. The last point I made was that the first data entry is made by a doctor, and that is where the data quality issues start. The guidelines for completing death certificates in England and Wales have recently been updated by the General Records Office, but the system still has an inherent vulnerability to variable human input.
Some clear patterns are emerging from the data that still need confirming (underlying conditions, age profile, African / Caribbean, indoor workers especially in care, but interestingly not smokers). I have been asked by a consultant surgeon in Southampton to write a joint follow up article next month when we have more data.
It is not clear to me (I will let others speculate) why England & Wales is following a policy that means the stated death toll appears to be higher than other countries, it is just giving critics who want the lockdown to continue, like the unions, more ammunition to resist any move to get back to work.
Good to be back on the site.
Catch you all soon, but probably not until 2021, I donāt see much prospect for international travel or football matches with real spectators this calendar year.
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Thanks for that. An interesting and enlightening article, informed and informative.
All the best and looking forward to see if the follow up article will be available.
Great to hear from you again and I guess we can assume youāre well!
(Weāll always have Milan no matter what happens to future travel!)
The comments on thatā¦ 
I think The Government are currently operating a much more efficient and widespread solution than Shipman could ever have dreamed of.
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It is madness to ease the lockdown without a comprehensive test track and isolate system in place.
This government has fucked every single decision in this crisis and the bodies will continue to pile up.
For example, some wards have seen clusters of cases. Surprise surprise, when tested (eventually ffs) several staff proved to be asymptomatic carriers. This is what will happen in the community on a grand scale.
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The whole handling of this virus seems to be too clueless to be solely incompetenceā¦they cannot be being āled by scienceā.
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There is one massive problem with relying on a comprehensive track and trace system - the British public
If you think about the fuss raise about the contact app and people not wanting to use it
Imagine if we had Singaporeās system put on us
They have implemented a QR code system. Whenever you go into a shop / office / MRT etc
You have to scan a QR code. When you leave you have to scan the code. You also have to put the reason for why you were there. That is all transmitted back to the govt and they can then use that to effectively manage the virus
They back this up with huge fines / imprisonments/ revocation of permanent resident visas / employment passes for non compliance
How many of you lot would be up for this
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Can we leave blaming the British public for their own misery to the government please?
If you read that amazing tweet I posted yesterday about HK International Arrivals, they basically have to wear one of those āparole tagsā for 14 days & ANY attempt to leave your quarantine site is an immediate fine!
Given the average age in Bournemouthā¦ this is a very bad ideaā¦ bit as this seems to be driven by anti-vaxxers, maybe a darwininian intervention?
That does look fake.
As in Iāve seen the same for a load of locations on social media
OK so do you think that system would survive contact with our public and media?
A year ago, if Iād told you that the British public would comply with a stay-at-home order, would you have believed me?
Given all the unprecedented shit weāve dealt with, now is probably not the time to say āthe British public wonāt go for thatā
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Not sure we canā¦ no matter how much you dislike anything or anyone that casts doubt on the British peoples ability to know what is good for themā¦ there comes a time when we just have to admit that we ALL need to take some fucking responsibility. Its no good moaning about the Government being shit (that the āpeople voted forā) and how they have fucked up the whole handling of the crisis (which should have been obvious to the āpeopleā they were voting for Government that fuck all clue about real leadership and was all huff and puff and spin), when we can ALL apply some fucking common sense - I have lost count of the number of unnecessary social distancing rule breaking, let alone conga parties, and folks going to work WHO DONT need toā¦ many simply either dont understand, or dont care.
We do at some point have to acknowledge thet there ARE people who are ignorant either through what they are capable of understanding or willing to understand, and before you say itā¦ this has fuck all to do with any sense of 'intellectual superiority, but its a truth you are often uncomfortable with.
When Government fails, it does not give us free licence to do as we please and then blame Government for the every shitty outcomeā¦ There is enough blood on their hands already over this, but there are some people who are also contributing to it by their lack of common sense and selfish behaviours
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Maybe - but would you accept the govt collecting and utilising that level of data - everywhere you have been, every shop you have gone to, every bus, metro etc etc
The only reason it works in Singapore is firstly, they are a very compliant nation used to doing exactly what they are told by government. Secondly it is backed up by draconian punishment - which again would never fly in the UK
That shit in Bournemouth sort of underlines my point - that would never happen in Singapore.
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