A mistake was made over the Covid death tool prevision report. UK Goverment has revised the numbers downward.
“We could see deaths over the winter that are twice as bad or more compared with the first wave”. Addressing to the Commons some days ago, Boris Johnson pronounced this phrase to justify a second national lockdown. More accurated graphs were shown at the press conference on October 31, according to which deaths would reach a number of 1500 a day.
Now the UK Government has admitted a mistake over the death tool prevision, revising the number downwards.
Mistake over Covid death toll graphs
Graphs showed death predictions of over 1500 per day by early December. Now those numbers have been revised.
The worst case scenario is now adjusted to under 1000 deaths per day.
Anyway, a Government a spokeperson said that the situation still remains critical. “Without action we would breach the first wave of hospital admissions and deaths in a matter of weeks“. Since the first data were used to legitimize a second national lockdown, this revision has generated reverse reactions.
Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that Government did well sharing those data. “The more data that we share the more scrutiny there is. That is a good thing in a democracy”. Moreover, even if he was not comfortable with the lockdown in the first place, the revison does not change the gravity of the situation. Hospitalisations are in fact surging up to 12000.
Quite the opposite came from Tory ex-chief whip Mark Harper. “How many more graphs from incorrect overstated figures have been used to try to justify a damaging, one size fits all national lockdown?“. More moderated was the statement made by Lib-Dem Munira Wilson. MP praised the Government apology, but criticised the fact that “sadly they have failed at every stage” to communicate in a transparent manner, losing people trust.
