Coronavirus

[Sephiroth]

Can anyone explain this? (from
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...ormed-each-day)

Austria population: 9 million
UK population: 67 million

Austria new cases: 1800 7 day average
UK new cases: 34000 7 day average

Austria in hospital: 644/221 IC 7 day average
UK in hospital: 7000/829 IC 7 day average

Austria fully vax: 61% of full population
UK fully vax: 67% of full population

Everything seems to be out of proportion as between population, cases (in particular), hospitalisation and IC ratio.

Any ideas?

[nffc]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Can anyone explain this? (from
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...ormed-each-day)

Austria population: 9 million
UK population: 67 million

Austria new cases: 1800 7 day average
UK new cases: 34000 7 day average

Austria in hospital: 644/221 IC 7 day average
UK in hospital: 7000/829 IC 7 day average

Austria fully vax: 61% of full population
UK fully vax: 67% of full population

Everything seems to be out of proportion as between population, cases (in particular), hospitalisation and IC ratio.

Any ideas?

What are the testing figures like?


We do a lot of LFT and PCRs so more likely to find people with the virus in them and mild/no illness.


Also don't forget how your hospitalisations are measured - is it people who went in with Covid or other things who then tested positive and what about people who caught Covid in hospital? Are they counted? Is the figure a fair test between countries?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by nffc

What are the testing figures like?

We do a lot of LFT and PCRs so more likely to find people with the virus in them and mild/no illness.

Also don't forget how your hospitalisations are measured - is it people who went in with Covid or other things who then tested positive and what about people who caught Covid in hospital? Are they counted? Is the figure a fair test between countries?

Also, how do the restrictions vary between countries? eg no jab, no entry to some events; does one country have more working from jobs than the other; what is people's behaviour like on social-distancing and mask-wearing?

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Can anyone explain this? (from
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...ormed-each-day)

Does this answer your question?

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...ormed-each-day

[jfman]

What’s the vaccine/efficacy mix?

The first thing I’ve gleamed from a cursory Google is that Austria extended vaccinations to 12-15 year olds months ago, and school age (particularly high school age) is where Covid is most prevalent in the UK.

Austria could, despite a lower vaccination rate, be much closer to herd immunity than we are if there’s a better distribution of vaccination across the population. It’s not an absolute number.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

Does this answer your question?

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavir...ormed-each-day

Thanks. Essentially that's:

Austria: 39 tests/1000 people
UK: 13 tests/1000 people

So, that's even more out of proportion.

[spiderplant]

To be honest, I wasn't even sure what your question was

Basically each country does things their own way. e.g. Who is eligible for a test? Do you have to pay? How ill do you have to be to get hospitalised or into IC?...

IIRC, in the early days Vietnam hospitalised every case.

And the US is about to massively increase the amount of testing it does (stable door, anyone?)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...e-covid-tests/

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

To be honest, I wasn't even sure what your question was

Basically each country does things their own way. e.g. Who is eligible for a test? Do you have to pay? How ill do you have to be to get hospitalised or into IC?...

IIRC, in the early days Vietnam hospitalised every case.

And the US is about to massively increase the amount of testing it does (stable door, anyone?)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...e-covid-tests/

I thought that my question was clear - about the disproportionality. But your response provides one possible answer; it totally negates the value of worldwide comparative statistics.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I thought that my question was clear - about the disproportionality. But your response provides one possible answer; it totally negates the value of worldwide comparative statistics.

It does, yes. We measure the number of deaths caused by coronavirus as anyone who dies within 28 days of a Covid test. Which other countries do that?

We record all deaths from Covid, others do not.

And so on. If we are going to compare our figures with those of other countries, it must be on a like-for-like basis otherwise they are practically worthless.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It does, yes. We measure the number of deaths caused by coronavirus as anyone who dies within 28 days of a Covid test. Which other countries do that?

We record all deaths from Covid, others do not.

And so on. If we are going to compare our figures with those of other countries, it must be on a like-for-like basis otherwise they are practically worthless.

I think different figures in the UK measure different things.

For example, the ONS stats record deaths caused by Covid 19, not by patients who had Covid 19. Other UK stats record patients who died with Covid 19 where it was present but always not the cause.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It does, yes. We measure the number of deaths caused by coronavirus as anyone who dies within 28 days of a Covid test. Which other countries do that?

We record all deaths from Covid, others do not.

And so on. If we are going to compare our figures with those of other countries, it must be on a like-for-like basis otherwise they are practically worthless.

I don’t know unless they’re suppressing thousands of cases that figure is fairly standalone, unless you think they’re just not testing but on a per 100k basis that’s been shown to be the opposite they are testing more than us.

“A like for like basis” is a convenient straw for some to clutch to in order to avoid unfavourable comparisons. Seph has drawn us towards a very interesting observation here that shouldn’t be easily dismissed. There could be something useful to learn from comparisons, but there of course has to be a willingness and not just a belief grounded on quicksand that we must be the best in the world.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

It does, yes. We measure the number of deaths caused by coronavirus as anyone who dies within 28 days of a Covid test. Which other countries do that?

We record all deaths from Covid, others do not.

And so on. If we are going to compare our figures with those of other countries, it must be on a like-for-like basis otherwise they are practically worthless.

That is not the basis for the ONS measurement of deaths due to COVID.

The ONS state

Weekly death figures provide provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales for which data are available, and the number of deaths for which the underlying cause was coded to respiratory diseases as defined in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Tenth Revision (ICD-10).
We use the term “due to" a cause of death (e.g COVID-19) when referring only to deaths with that underlying (main) cause of death. We use the term “involving" when referring to all deaths that had the cause mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=%2fp...ek3820211.xlsx

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Also, how do the restrictions vary between countries? eg no jab, no entry to some events; does one country have more working from jobs than the other; what is people's behaviour like on social-distancing and mask-wearing?

What does this mean Andrew? Working from jobs? If you have a job you're working surely.

"Working from home" probably…

[jfman]

Originally Posted by pip08456

What does this mean Andrew? Working from jobs? If you have a job you're working surely.

I dunno I know plenty of folk with jobs and “working” is a stretch.