Why the majority of England’s Covid deaths are now from vaccinated people despite the fact that the vaccines work well

It may be more than two and a half years into the pandemic, but the battle of "what is true?"" regarding many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic continues. Many of us have probably seen a chart like this floating around social media in recent times. A representative example of these charts, this one from The … Continue reading Why the majority of England’s Covid deaths are now from vaccinated people despite the fact that the vaccines work well

Study estimates that the Covid-19 vaccines saved 15 million lives last year

In a new study published in the Lancet, Watson et al. estimate that by the end of 2021, the Covid-19 vaccines have prevented an estimated 14.4 million deaths (with a 95% credible interval of between 13.7- 15.9 million deaths) . The estimate would rise to 19.8 million (19.1 - 20.4 million 95% CrI) if they … Continue reading Study estimates that the Covid-19 vaccines saved 15 million lives last year

The effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine: 95% or 0.84%?

At the time of writing, about 87% of UK adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. The huge majority of mainstream scientific or journalistic sources report the vaccine efficacy as being very high, up to 95% depending on the specific vaccine and specific measure in question. It may be somewhat lower … Continue reading The effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine: 95% or 0.84%?

Covid-19 testing in England’s secondary schools: the story so far

Last week, secondary schools in England reopened for all pupils, after several months of semi-closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During that period, most teachers were busy labouring hard to conduct their lessons remotely, often persevering with minimal extra resources and inconsistent central guidance. A smaller proportion were still going to school, in order to … Continue reading Covid-19 testing in England’s secondary schools: the story so far

Official UK Covid-19 vaccination progress data

Now that the Covid-19 vaccination program is under way, data fans might be interested in obtaining the stats of how the UK is doing in terms of vaccinations administered so far. The NHS is publishing a variety of these reports and, even better, the underlying data here. The most comprehensive data there is likely the … Continue reading Official UK Covid-19 vaccination progress data

Solving the the case of the 6cm man with assertive programming

Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo, was recently surprised to receive an invite to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. Whilst the UK does seem to be numerically ahead in absolute terms of many (but not all) other countries when it comes to at putting first-doses into people, we're still at the stage where only … Continue reading Solving the the case of the 6cm man with assertive programming

Average age at menarche by country

A question came up recently about variations in the age at menarche - the first occurrence of menstruation for a female human -  with regards to the environment. A comparison by country seemed like a reasonable first step in noting whether there were in fact any significant, potentially environmental, differences in this age. A quick … Continue reading Average age at menarche by country

Lessons from what happened before Snow’s famous cholera map changed the world

Anyone who studies any amount of the history of, or the best practice for, data visualisation will almost certainly come across a handful of "classic" vizzes. These specific transformations of data-into-diagram have stuck with us through the mists of time in order to become examples that teachers, authors, conference speakers and the like repeatedly pick … Continue reading Lessons from what happened before Snow’s famous cholera map changed the world

#VisualizeNoMalaria: Let’s all help build an anti-Malaria dataset

As well as just being plain old fun, data can also be an enabler for "good" in the world. Several organisations are clearly aware of this; both Tableau and Alteryx now have wings specifically for doing good. There are whole organisations set up to promote beneficial uses of data, such as DataKind, and a bunch of … Continue reading #VisualizeNoMalaria: Let’s all help build an anti-Malaria dataset