This is seriously nuts, and everyone seems fairly sedate about it!
Some snippets from the BBC:
- "Covid cases increase rapidly as next steps planned" - all part of the plan it seems (you can see the same around Europe). Effectively "We have to keep up this charade and so we will introduce measures at around the time cases are about to plateau and then claim the credit for 'defeating the virus'."
- " The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates 224,000 people in homes in England had the virus, up to 1 October. That is roughly double the figure reported for each of the last two weeks, and suggests hopes of a
"levelling off" last week may have been a false dawn." - Including this for balance but haven't checked the source data, certainly an outlier of the other data.
- "The Covid Symptom Study app - which uses data from 4 million people and 12,000 swab tests - estimates 21,903 people are developing Covid symptoms every day across the UK. That is 1,000-a-day more than a week ago." - A reliable indicator. This is not a "rapid increase". It is also very region dependent. Yes, North and Midlands (in areas) genuinely increasing. The South? Nope. Why's that?
- "The number of people in the UK to have tested positive for coronavirus rose by 13,864 on Friday, the figure on the same date a month ago was 3,330."
That last snippet is the best of the lot. It is pretty pointless making news of day to day changes in cases but that is what the BBC has been doing so lets look at the difference between today and previous days and the associated headline.
When there was an issue with the reporting which lead to a (meaningless without context) large increase in cases the BBC will quite happily splash it all over the front page. When daily cases are at 13,864 you'll note that it is not a headline and they don't state it is not "a decrease by several thousand" on the previous day (which would also be meaningless), but they will just compare it with a date a month ago!!!!
It would be truly comical if it were not so serious. I'm lucky, my job is under no immediate threat, my family is safe and secure financially, for the most part. I feel sorry for those who have lost family, jobs, livelihoods, businesses. And for those who the worst is yet to come. Particularly those who will not necessarily understand the intricacies of the science. Science which, in my view, has been twisted. This whole shambles is an absolute stain on science and journalism.
In my area of work I look back at studies carried out 50, 100 years ago and think of the advances which have been made. What was absolutely cutting edge 50 years ago is taught in 1st year undergraduate studies these days. Look back at the 1918 Flu pandemics...... back then there wasn't an understanding of what a virus was. No understanding of the structure of RNA, DNA, that is just how it was it was, those advances hand't been made.
People will look back in 50, 100 years at the current carnage and say "Well, they didn't understand X,Y, or Z at the time so the response is understandable". I also think they will look back and say "Knowing what they did know at the time what the hell were they doing?!"