Re:London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline
by WalterBright on Saturday May 23, 2020 @09:06PM
(#23288165)
I am always rolling my eyes at breathless news reports along the lines of "the actual number of deaths may be higher than the official count!"
Of course they are going to be higher.
Even the official counts can be fuzzy. For example, people dying of cancer are often carried off by pneumonia due to their weakened state. Was the cause of death the cancer or the pneumonia?
In Toronto Canada:
- Number of tests available are limited still (and were severely so until recently) - People who are showing symptoms but aren't high risk have been turned away after pre-screening - People who are showing symptoms but aren't front line workers have been turned away after pre-screening - People who have had severe exposure but aren't showing symptoms have been turned away after pre-screening
(Heck, understanding it's an anecdote, but my neighbour showed all the symptoms, after waiting hours and talking to all the pre-screeners, they told him, literally "Yup, you have it; we don't need to bother testing". )
Anecdata notwithstanding, it is crucial for people to understand that the number of tested positive cases is by definition, always, under all circumstances, always going to be some subset of people actually sick. And sometimes significantly so... sometimes by order(s) of magnitude.