birdie1971 at 02.05; No, it is not unreasonable to want reliable information to allow you to understand what is happening. One thing is for certain, unlike what Donald believes, testing for Covid does not infect anyone with Covid. Another one is that the number of positives serves as a warning but deaths are what makes this disease worrisome. Given the present state of knowledge, preventing death is only reliably achieved by reducing the spread of the disease. Rapid spread of the disease will inevitably lead to more deaths, test or no test, and saving lives ultimately is down to how well the healthcare performs.
Ever since the start of the pandemic in the UK/Europe I have been trying to find information describing the different facets of this issue but initially I found getting detailed UK specific information almost impossible and for the longest while I was better informed about the UK by international data sources - which presumably were getting "privileged" information the rest of us could not be trusted with, as if right out of Sir Humphrey's rule book in Yes Minister. Things have admittedly got better but I am still finding the UK a difficult country while from/for elsewhere I get more detail - in a few cases the fullest of detail since the end of February/beginning of March. Most recently, I have been trying to get data for the total number of Covid positive deaths in hospital and the total number of Covid positive hospital patients. First I approached the ONS who then pointed me to the NHS who pointed me to PHE who in turn pointed me to the NHS.....
To be fair, one should perhaps expect this because unlike at least some other countries, the UK is clearly all at sea when it comes to record keeping and/or gathering the statistics, as can also be read from posts on this thread. Still, the UK has come out of this crisis looking very poor indeed and mostly, it would appear, from ineptitude rather than inherent inability. It is natural that this outcome should bring about severe discomfort - the authorities feel a need to deny the crushing fiasco and the public feel a sense of hurt pride and sadness. Nobody wants to own the conclusion of failure or belong to it and the authorities (and some of the public) have been devising ever changing ways to cast doubt on the increasingly obvious fact that the UK has come out very badly - how to count and what to count to reduce the size of the black cloud became a serious preoccupation. The last straw went in the past days when even the "excess deaths" device proves what had for quite a while been suggested: The UK is certainly among the very worst by absolutely every measure. No doubt some are still saying that admitting that is treasonous. Meanwhile I keep wondering if the NHS lost a higher proportion of lives in their care than other health systems, for me that would be the final national indicator - the fact that the figures are "not available" fills me with dread.