Scare mongering — easily stopped, if the will is there
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but that’s a big if
Stop printing COVID death counts
The analysis and comments from Professor Dingwall come after independent experts said daily death statistics have become 'useless' and serve only to 'frighten' people.
Scientists have suggested ministers should stop publishing the number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test unless they provide corresponding figures for other diseases.
Professor Tim Spector, from King’s College London, said Covid figures were of little use without context.
The professor, who is behind the biggest Covid symptom tracker study, which uses the app Zoe, suggested that the figures could be published alongside statistics for other health conditions such as flu, heart disease and cancer, all of which are linked to thousands more deaths than Covid every month.
‘On their own, [Covid death statistics] are useless and scaremongering,’ he said.
‘They need to be put in context of the number of expected deaths on that day and things like the number of deaths from cancer or heart disease so people have some idea or proportion – because generally they are used to frighten people. People have forgotten how many admissions there were at the height of winter.’
The Department of Health is providing a daily update of infections, deaths, and hospitalisations.
But given the success of the vaccine programme in breaking the link between cases and deaths, many think it is now time to stop as the statistics could be taking a mental toll on the public.
Conservative MPs are also said to be fed up with the numbers and are calling for a debate about when to stop publishing the data, as the country moves towards 'Freedom Day' on July 19.
They are lobbying No10 to follow public health chiefs in Quebec, Canada, who announced this week they will release the updates weekly now, rather than daily. Singapore is also planning to stop publishing daily infection numbers.
Professor Tony Brookes, a health data scientist at Leicester University, told MailOnline he would ‘very, very much support’ halting the daily publication of Covid cases and deaths.
‘It’s all nonsensical scientifically,’ he said. ‘It is clearly motivated to promote fear to keep people compliant.
‘They’ll never stop publishing those figures if they want a climate of fear.
‘But, if they are ready to move on then they might be receptive to dropping daily figures which are not helpful.
He added: ‘There are more people dying every day from pneumonia, for example, but we don’t get a daily update on that.’
But the same “experts” who created the original panic are fighting back: Media sounds alarm on Delta Variant despite largely effective covid vaccines
[Chuck] Todd continued his screed and accused others of spreading "misinformation."
"And for those of you spreading misinformation, shame on you. Shame on you!" Todd exclaimed as he pointed to the camera. "People are needlessly dying because of your misinformation! Think about it. I don’t know how some of you sleep at night who are doing this for a living on television."
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and vaccine scientist who's made countless cable news appearances during the pandemic, warned CNN viewers that the Delta variant "is like nothing we’ve seen before."
"This is twice as infectious as anything we’ve seen before, so if you are not vaccinated or you are only partially vaccinated, there's a high likelihood that you will become infected with this Delta variant over the next few weeks or over the summer," Hotez said. "It's not too late. Now is the time to get vaccinated. And if you’re a young adult or adolescent, don’t listen to the anti-vaccine nonsense that says if you go to the gym & eat a healthy diet, that’s good enough. It's not. It's not the same as the virus-neutralizing the antibodies from the vaccine."
"It's very hard to compress those timelines," Hotez said. "So, unfortunately, I doubt we'll have a vaccine in time for this epidemic. But hopefully, if the virus returns we can have it stockpiled and ready to go the next time around."
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