Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Thursday 26 March 2020

Virus Stats - Is Government Being Honest?

One way in which suspicion has fallen upon countries like China, and indeed Russia, over reporting infections and deaths due to the Coronavirus, is the way in which they have been open and honest about the numbers - or perhaps not. Our free and fearless press has found this most useful, as in the absence of Scary Muslims™, Rotten Lefties™ and anyone who is not white, they always need someone to blame, because, er, they do.
So it ill behoves our own Government to be less than totally open and honest themselves, and that is the distinct impression given during the past 24 hours. On Tuesday afternoon, the infection and death figures were issued via the Department of Health and Social Care Twitter account at 1551 hours. These told that 8,077 people had tested positive for Covid-19, while, overall, 422 had died. But yesterday, everything changed.
At 1416 hours yesterday, the DHSC Twitter feed told “Today's figures will be published later this afternoon. We are working hard to provide you with the latest information and will tweet this out as soon as possible”. But the figures did not appear until after 2300 hours, well after media sources had them. The number of those testing positive had leapt to 9,529, but cumulative deaths had increased to just 463.
However, the lockdown strategy should take at least two weeks to work through - maybe a little longer. Then the waters became yet more muddied, as Sienna Rogers of LabourList observed “Well, this is very interesting from [Nick Watt] – the government is changing the way it is releasing death figures, which ‘may not actually be the deaths that have taken place over the last 24 hrs’ as family consent is now required”. Eh?
LSE researcher Luke Cooper was sceptical. “It’s not true that consent is required if the data is anonymised. I’m sorry to say that this sounds an awful lot like govt is fiddling the figures”. And as we are given just the overall numbers of deaths, the date is indeed anonymised. Then came Rowena Mason at the Guardian. “No 10 says mortality rates were lower yesterday because it is a ‘crossover day’ as the way we report coronavirus deaths is changing - no clarity on why or how yet”.
They could be arguing in their spare time. Chris Smyth of the Times then chipped in “Death figures update: last night only 28 new fatalities [England] recorded. Alas this is not good news, it is because there are now so many deaths NHS using a 7.30am cut off instead of 1pm. So govt looking at changing how they are reported”. Oh? Do go on.
We may not get any death figures today, as they are looking at moving to publishing first thing in the morning. Aim is to give more time to collate NHS data and inform families before ages and locations made public”. Well, well. While hundreds of new deaths from both Italy and Spain are freely reported and picked up by media sources, the information that should be most relevant to those media sources has mysteriously dried up.
We are told that there is bad news coming down the track; a new NHS facility is being built at the ExCeL centre in London’s Docklands; that facility, NHS Nightingale, has provision for thousands of beds and two morgues; individual reports of deaths are everywhere; TfL staff report scores of their colleagues falling ill from the virus; and the numbers dry up.

This is the stuff from which conspiracy theories spring. Government must come clean.
Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet5

[The Legalballs Fund has now closed]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course they are dishonest.
How many in Westminster got it in the end? Not enough some would say - and they all lived. Proving the likelihood of spread is not as bad as they claim. Stupidity in Westminster is endemic. Always was.
You know the people in this nation will be sat wondering one day (when it is too late) if they should have perhaps used their new-found leisure in a more constructive way to... I dunno... fight back?! Get off your knees! They are fisting you beyond belief and claiming to care.
All of that money they saved during years of austerity will all be spent on the current national fuck-up in no time.
Stop listening to that odious twat Guido who is likely engineering your downfalls along with other vermin.
Some of us are in the know in terms of REAL truth. Not an over-inflated pisshead with a bully boy loser playground atTITude. Where is his loyalty? With the UK?
I am surprised he could rise to any fucking occasion. Women must be gutted everywhere...


Offa's Site said...

The Westminster Government using the UK-wide HM Gov website for elderly and vulnerable people to register for support so long as they live in England?
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable
I thought that the national, UK taxpayer-funded database was a resource for everyone in the UK, but it seems that when there's a pandemic those in England get a service that isn't available in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Anonymous said...

Well, it's only following the statistical precedents of 40 years.

Take the term "unemployment".

It has been "adjusted" more than 30 times during that period. Each "adjustment" has led directly to a lowering of the aggregate figure at the time it was implemented. Add in bullshit terms like "gig economy" and "zero hours contracts" and you have the making of Newspeak for the 21st century - better known to honest citizens as lies.

No surprise, then, when gobshites in Westminster and Whitehall pull this latest stroke. It's par for an evil course. My bet is corporate media will not only let it pass, but will actually promote it.

Britain 2020. We let it happen.

Anonymous said...

When it comes to stats. Numbers alone are not enough...
I would like to know more about each patient such as:

The last 3-6 months of medical history
Age
Weight
Dick size
Bra size
Hair length
What team they support

and if they watch Piers Morgan on a morning because that sack of shit will deplete any fucking immune system.


I am serious about medical history and age though...

And Piers!




Tonight Matthew, I'm gonna be...

Sympathy, your not quite the man you used to be
fiddling figures in a catastrophe
Oh you still have no sympathy
Sympathy with your yes men media circuitry
seeking funding helping desperately
fuck the country, you and me
Paper sales are dropping every day
For a reason, they don't like to say
Like we were born just yesterday!

Yesterday BBC and TV rot away
Only repeats like on yesterday
The day before again today
Yesterday it such a serious game today
watch them waving as they fade away
How they long for yesterday

Before they got caught!


Paul said...

The (election rigging) USA had a #Coronavirus death rate of 1.2% as of 22nd March 2020.

Compare this with:

China 4%
Italy 9%
Iran 7.8%
Spain 6%

Germany has the lowest death rate at 0.4% but excellent, advanced intensive care provision whereas the USA's "health care" coverage may be goodbifbyou can afford it but basically matches that of a third world nation.

It seems the UK is following in the source of all global terror's footsteps once again.

Arnold said...

I wonder how long the UK will put up with being lied to?
1) These figures.
2) Ventilators
3) Antibody tests.
4) Prince Charles and wife being tested by the NHS as per guidelines, not privately.
Have I missed any.

Anonymous said...

In 2018 the US fired the team responsible for coordinating responses to pandemics and never replaced them. Funding for global CDCs global disease outbreak prevention efforts was reduced by 80% - including efforts in China.

All under Trump.

Scientists are still unsure if Covid came from Snakes, Bats or Pangolins.

Nothing from Staines and Co on the US fuck ups.

Still not treading on those US toes?

Arnold said...

From the Guardian -

"No 10 initially said it did not take part because the UK was “no longer a member” and was “making our own efforts”."

"But after critics accused Boris Johnson of putting “Brexit over breathing”, a No 10 spokesman clarified that it had missed out because of an error"

That isn't a clarification as the original statement was very clear.

Anonymous said...

Poor Staines. Probabaly needs his mass gatherings now more than ever.

To find they are banned.



How piss your pants funny is that...