Thursday, April 2, 2020

Statistics are useless

In the past, I have pointed out that other countries do not count deaths the same as the US. For example, Australia only counts a death as being a homicide if someone is arrested and charged for the killing. If the killer dies before he can be charged, it doesn't count as a homicide. In the UK, a death only counts as a homicide if someone is CONVICTED of the crime.

There are many areas where we see a discrepancy in statistical methods. For example, in the UK if an infant dies within 30 days of being born, that death counts as a miscarriage and does not add to their infant mortality rates. This is one of the reasons, perhaps the largest reason, that the UK has an infant mortality rate that is so much lower than the US.

In the case of the Wuhan virus, this issue rears its head again as we find out that France only counted a death as being caused by COVID-19 if the decedent died while hospitalized. Patients who died in a nursing home or at home don't count. Until today, that is. Today, the French decided to add in the 884 people who had died in nursing homes. Those who have died at home presumably still do not count.

The point of all of this is that statistics are trash. Garbage in, garbage out.

1 comment:

Jonathan H said...

Exactly. You can't make comparisons unless you are comparing the same things.