Covid by numbers: 10 key lessons separating fact from fiction

To make sense of coronavirus data, the Observer asked David Spiegelhalterand Anthony Masters of the Royal Statistical Society Covid taskforce to write a column. That column has now inspired a book. Here are some of its insightsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageGenomic sequencing has identified more than 1,000 different seeds of Sars-CoV-2 introduced in early 2020. Instead of one central outbreak, reverberating outwards like an explosion, we now know there were many erupting simultaneously across the country. There were far more imports of Sars-CoV-2 from France, Italy and Spain than from China – viruses can take indirect flights. The peak was early March, after the school half-term, but a popular holiday time for adults. At the Champions League football match at Anfield between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid on 10 March, 49,000 local supporters mixed with3,000 fans of the opposing team, while schools in Madrid were shut and supporters could not attend matches. To add insult to injury, Liverpool lost 3 –2, and 4–2 on aggregate.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Coronavirus Infectious diseases Medical research Microbiology Science World news Focus Source Type: news