2 ms·

Thank you. Nevertheless: this is meaningless. Protocols for counting deaths are different in different countries. Plus they are, in my opinion, absurd. In S

Thank you. Nevertheless: this is meaningless. Protocols for counting deaths are different in different countries. Plus they are, in my opinion, absurd. In Spain only those deaths that a. happen in a hospital and b. were tested positive before death are counted. Needless to say, testing is scarce and has been for the past two months. Better source of actual deaths caused by the epidemy in Spain is the following: Mortality Excess for all Causes Report (in Spanish): https://www.isciii.es/QueHacemos/Servicios/VigilanciaSaludPublicaRENAVE/EnfermedadesTransmisibles/MoMo/Paginas/Informes-MoMo-2020.aspx https://www.isciii.es/QueHacemos/Servicios/VigilanciaSaludPu... And still one has to take into account that the Justice administration is collapsed as well (i.e., deaths are not reported timely [note the dark "confidence interval" around the daily death toll in the graph; also read last paragraph in the report]). Note that this counts deaths by all factors, including health system collapse. (Which, in my opinion, are result of the epidemy, and its mismanagement.) Similar but different accounting is used in other countries. It's a mess.

adventured 7y ago
There is wide understanding it's a mess and that nations use different methods of counting Covid deaths. These are obvious things at this point in the pandemic. It's not meaningless. The 20,000 death count in France is not likely to be missing another 50,000 deaths. If they're missing 5,000 deaths, the 20k scale is still extremely useful. In many of the hardest hit nations we can use these counts as floors if nothing else and go from there. It provides a very reasonable ballpark understanding of what's happening in many (not all) nations and states. If a nation is reporting thousands of deaths, we know they're being hit by it - regardless of +/- counts - and can pay closer attention accordingly.

adventured 7y ago

There is wide understanding it's a mess and that nations use different methods of counting Covid deaths. These are obvious things at this point in the pandemic. It's not meaningless. The 20,000 death count in France is not likely to be missing another 50,000 deaths. If they're missing 5,000 deaths, the 20k scale is still extremely useful. In many of the hardest hit nations we can use these counts as floors if nothing else and go from there. It provides a very reasonable ballpark understanding of what's happening in many (not all) nations and states. If a nation is reporting thousands of deaths, we know they're being hit by it - regardless of +/- counts - and can pay closer attention accordingly.