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Covid by Numbers review – how to make sense of the statistics

David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters delve into the detail behind the data and explore the true human cost of the pandemic

Along with successive waves of infection, the coronavirus pandemic has provided us with a tsunami of data and graphs. Thanks to the Public Health England dashboard and websites such as Our World in Data, every internet user can access accurate and timely information on Covid cases, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccines, broken down by age, gender and location.

However, while this wealth of information can be immensely valuable, it can also cause problems. Taken out of context and spun in a misleading way, raw coronavirus numbers can be a source of disinformation, which through social media can spread as efficiently as the virus itself. A simple fact, such as the median age of coronavirus victims (83) actually exceeding UK life expectancy at birth (81) can lead to governments and the public not taking Covid as seriously as they should. (Having lived to 83, one would ordinarily expect to live longer still – what matters is life expectancy conditional on having reached this age.)

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