Record-keepers have a pretty good sense of how many people have died. But figuring out the cause of those deaths is a lot trickier – and that’s why reasonable modelers can disagree.
Understanding numbers in the news or social media can empower you to figure out risks and make good choices. Here’s what to look out for to make sure you aren’t misled by COVID-19 coverage.
It’s important to get the figures right to know if we are truely out of any recession, or if we need further stimulus to help get more people into work.
Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to improve the species. Put into practice, Galton’s concept proved discriminatory, damaging, even deadly.
Whether you are predicting the outcome of an election or studying how effective a new drug is, there will always be some uncertainty. A margin of error is how statisticians measure that uncertainty.
The coronavirus vaccine was developed faster than any vaccine in history. It took just 332 days from the first sequencing of the virus genome to the first vaccines given to the public.
Asking these four questions can help us identify good news when we see it, be more critical of news reports, or delay our judgement until we have more information.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how much modern societies are governed by statistics. Despite their objective appearance, these numbers gain their strength from very human relationships.
African governments must engage rating agencies better, providing them and investors with credible economic data, and regularly address all concerns being raised.
Health statisticians keep careful tabs on how many people die every week. Based on what’s happened in past years, they know what to expect – but 2020 death counts are surging beyond predictions.
Professor, Future Fellow and Head of Statistics at UNSW, and a Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS), UNSW Sydney