Summary The toll of deaths and other consequences Deaths per day New cases per day UK "Global Death Comparison" chart UK nation and regional comparisons Poor UK Government decision making NHS/PHE labs are being denied testing reagents Unspecified case location in 70% of UK cases Problems with the covid-19 science Problems with the media and covid-19 Reasons to be concerned Reporting delays in Liverpool for covid-19 tests Action needed Elimination of the virus ("Zero covid") Elimination successes Population ("herd") immunity Countries with the best covid-19 control: half-lives of 5 days When to end the UK lockdown Predicting epidemics - Q and A R values, doubling times and halving times Data sources Data sources for covid-19.php Seven principles of public life in the UK Myths and misinformation About

Some media reporting has been very misleading

One example is Tweets by Andrew Neil, Chairman of the Spectator. As a prominent journalist and commentator, it is very poor that he has persistently misreported covid-19 statistics.

Case 1
The 7-day moving average covid-19 reported cases from Sweden were:
Oct 10: 611
Oct 17: 781
i.e. up 28% in the week

But Andrew Neil misreported a 23% decrease by using incomplete data in his Tweet of 18 October.
The actual picture from Sweden is of a steady increase in cases:

Andrew Neil's error in calculating his "7-day average" was to include two days where figures had not yet been reported and another day where figures were incomplete.

Case 2
The error in case 1 is part of a series of similar errors, comparing a full 7 days of data with 5 days of data. He had done the same the previous week, and despite the error being pointed out, he repeated it again on 21 Oct, together with a dismissive "Remind me what all the fuss was about with my earlier post?" [1].

Case 3
On 19 October, Andrew Neill Tweeted that
"Ireland's average daily death toll from Covid has been 1 since mid-June".

It is wrong that he is making misleading comments like this when Ireland's reported deaths are steadily increasing:

Media reporting has not highlighted the best in the world

There are some great success stories, but there have been few reports about them.

Media scrutiny of the Government has been poor

References

[1]	Andrew Neil Tweet (21 Oct 2020) https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1318800485005037569

First published: 21 Oct 2020
Last updated: 3 Nov 2020

Summary The toll of deaths and other consequences Deaths per day New cases per day UK "Global Death Comparison" chart UK nation and regional comparisons Poor UK Government decision making NHS/PHE labs are being denied testing reagents Unspecified case location in 70% of UK cases Problems with the covid-19 science Problems with the media and covid-19 Reasons to be concerned Reporting delays in Liverpool for covid-19 tests Action needed Elimination of the virus ("Zero covid") Elimination successes Population ("herd") immunity Countries with the best covid-19 control: half-lives of 5 days When to end the UK lockdown Predicting epidemics - Q and A R values, doubling times and halving times Data sources Data sources for covid-19.php Seven principles of public life in the UK Myths and misinformation About