Listening to Jeremy Vine now on Radio 2. ‘At no point since we started tracking the data on cases, did they ever double in size from one day to the next’. That’s from the MP demanding that the scientists be held to account for presenting a scenario that we’ve yet to see. Causing shock and not presenting the facts
When you said this I was curious. So I plotted the following. While it did almost treble in 7 days at one point, I do agree with you that there's not enough of a trend there to make such an assertion.
Scientists just present modelling based on analysis it’s up to politicians to make political decisions. Scientists are generally experts in a very specific field. The analysis they gave was that the virus would spread exponentially without action. They didn’t ever indicate that cases would double for the next 1000 years I guess they thought people would understand that without the need for explanation. the decisions the govt made based on that analysis are their decisions not the scientists. The daft 10 o clock curfew is summat they cooked up. The failure is on the tories not on scientists.
Absolutely, it was done to make a point and to make the nation pay attention again so in that respect it worked. We all know it was ****** but we don’t need DB3K blatantly lying about what they said though.
They are scientists with an independent view advising the Government - up to the point at which they are put out on their own, in a Government organised press conference, with no elected representatives present at which point they become representatives of the State and at that point they should have a moral and ethical duty to represent facts and not silly scaremongering fantasy projections which have zero basis in empirical evidence from anywhere in the world. Any reasonable person would call these "lies" rather than "projections". .
The picture doesn't show for me mate, and I'd be interested to see it - any chance you can try again?
Try the direct link: https://i.imgur.com/EjztFJs.png Or I'll also try uploading it, but that often compresses it too much.
No-one's said that they would double in size from one day to the next have they? I've heard certain periods of time mentioned for doubling, but not 24 hours.
Point still stands regardless though (I might have heard his classification wrong). There was no time period where cases doubled, with relevance, that could influence the chart they put up in that press conference
That’s not true. Look at the table I posted previously. You could argue the 2x and 3x numbers were anomalies and not a trend and I’d be inclined to agree (although I still think the current trend is worrying) but the number of positive cases did on multiple occasions double over the span of 7 days.
But it wasn't a prediction it was a 'could be secenario' although it was the only possible outcome shown. It was misleading to say the least.
It wasn't a trend. So therefore plotting data that isn't a trend is disingenuous and negligent when it comes to something as serious as this. The scientists presented a scenario based on a government objective to grab shock headlines - what they should have done is present realistic scenarios that could relate to what was likely to happen. If they'd have done that, you wouldn't have people making comments around their golf handicap, opinion percentage, etc. which wouldn't lead to you calling people's comments stupid - as they wouldn't have made them. Shambles really whatever way you look at it.
Interesting thanks - so it's happened on only 4 days of the pandemic so far. And those days do look like slightly odd statistical outliers as then most times the date 7 days later is actually lower than the one that caused a move into the "red zone". What happens (and I know you have a proper job, so tell me to F.O. if you're busy!) if you take the rolling 7 day average I wonder?
The 7 day average is the right half of the table! I have updated it though and added 'days to double' and 'days to treble' at the daily rate of increases.
Also, this is only showing from the 11th August. Not all the pandemic. Although case data was not reliable for the first spike, so not sure it would be possible to backdate it
Love this data mate. Tell me where I'm going wrong here, but the 7 day average on Monday 7th September vs. the 7 day average on Thursday 24th September shows that cases haven't double over that 17 day period. So why would the scientists then plot a scenario based on cases doubling?
I hope Parliament are able to start voting on Covid policy soon. Hopefully the numbers will cause the measure to be thrown out after the three week period.