Data is vital in trying to understand the crisis unfolding around us. But the data we have during the Covid-19 pandemic is incomplete and confusing. We need clearly explained, accessible data. 

During the pandemic, the population is having to use complex data to understand what is happening around them, and how to adapt their behaviour. Flattening the curve is about numbers, so accurate and carefully reported data is crucial for us all.

However, the way Covid-19 is being measured and reported is problematic. The main numbers, which have become daily headlines, are the number of infections and the number of deaths. From this we measure the progress of the virus, and inform our response to it.

In this forest of numbers, it is increasingly hard to tell what is going on, which suggests the numbers are neither being gathered nor reported well. The media, even the BBC, evolved their reporting from talking about ‘total deaths’ to ‘total confirmed deaths,’ to reporting more accurately that the Department of Health statistic they are using is actually the number of ‘confirmed hospital deaths.’ Only recently have we, the public, discovered that the nightly number of deaths on the news did not include deaths in the community, or in care homes. In other European countries, around half of recorded deaths have been in care homes, suggesting that the UK death rate is far higher than is being reported.