Snaking left to right by month, the lines appear to rise sharply - particularly for the North West - in the past two weeks. It showed the average number of weekly hospital admissions per 100,000 for both the North West and England as a whole. The second graph deployed by Prof Whitty to illustrate the supposed pressure felt by hospitals was problematic in a different way. The age distribution has “flipped” he said, so those under-65 now make up 70 per cent of cases The North West Sir Simon also said hospitals are in a “much better position” than last year. On Tuesday morning, Sir Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, revealed that just one per cent of hospital beds are currently occupied by Covid patients, with most of those young. The Telegraph’s own graph below - showing, crucially, the actual numbers of patients in hospitals - demonstrates how incomparably better the current situation is. In September, at the start of the second wave, those aged 18-to-64 comprised 51 per cent of admissions compared with 60 per cent in May. This was higher than it was for the over-65 age group. This comparison is also weakened by the timing chosen by the Government.Ĭases are generally distributed in younger age groups towards the start of a period of opening up, as these people are more likely to return to work in person or to socialise. However, a brief glance at the Downing Street graph - and that’s all the general public will have had the chance to do - could well give the impression that the situation in hospitals is worse than last winter.
In reality, there were 95,172 admissions for Covid in England between Jan 1 and 28, compared with 2,851 between May 16 and June 12. The problem is that this fails to show just how much lower the raw numbers are now. This showed a big jump in the under-65s column, a point Prof Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, took pains to emphasise.
We were shown a graph comparing the change in the proportion of under and over-65s admitted to hospital in January and in May/June.
The by now all-too-familiar vertiginous lines were intended to leave the public in no doubt about the consequences of not delaying freedom until July 19.īut take a closer look and the choice of graphs is arguably disingenuous: the slides are most revealing for what they failed to include.
As ever at Downing Street press conferences, Boris Johnson’s scientific advisers deployed their graphs skilfully to back up the warnings of potential catastrophe.
0 kommentar(er)
