FREE ISSUE: SNS: Corona: The Missing Data
Corona: The Missing Data
- Introduction: Latent Parameters and New Metrics
by Mark Anderson
This week, we’re going to look at the COVID-19 virus story not from the perspective of what we know, but rather – and more important – what we do not know.
Yesterday a (non-technical) friend in the hospitality business asked me what I thought about the virus and its impacts. I told him the virus is like a mirror, with the epidemic(s) showing us things about our countries and ourselves that are both good and bad.
Clearly, a lack of good data would be at the top of the latter list.
While China’s global propaganda machine has ramped into full steam ahead, praising Xi for his leadership, the rest of the world stands back in wonder at the lies, delays, firings, deaths, and overall inconsistency between Chinese states with regard to data reportage. I don’t think our members will find anyone, inside or outside China, who believes the government’s numbers. This lack of data integrity has been the largest impediment to global success in preventing and treating the disease.