"More or Less" on BBC Radio 4 is "the show that uses numbers to explore and explain the world around us". What it really does is dissect and correct the 'facts' and figures behind the news headlines. This morning's episode from 09:00 to 09:30 BST - about Covid19 - was something of a classic. For the next week at least, you (in the UK at least) can listen again on bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl7j
Also, how in Europe and the USA we still have no good estimate of the prevalence of the disease, i.e. what proportion of the population have actually been infected by the virus (only some Far East nations have done enough testing to have some kind of estimate), or as a consequence the infection mortality rate. The limited studies that have been done (e.g. Stanford University's, which suggested an infection rate 50-85 times the official figures) suffer from selection bias. Bigger and better national studies are in progress, but it could take 12 months for reliable data to emerge.
Should we be concerned that on both sides of the Atlantic we are preparing to unlock the lockdown without such data? And with no widely effective medicine or vaccine in sight? And with daily cases still on the rise in distinct parts of the population? And without fully understanding either the pathology of the disease or how it transmits?
Most of what we think we know is nicely summarised in this review paper ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Now here's an example of how Covid can debunk scientific dogma. Two patients infected with the Covid19 virus who each sustained classic Covid lung damage, widely believed to be a later-stage phenomenon, SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE THE ONSET OF SYMPTOMS.