Thoughts On The COVID-19 Testing
I must first congratulate all those involved in organising and carrying-out the tests.
As someone, who has analysed many large databases for patterns of perhaps marketing information, product recalls or criminal activity, 100,000 tests per day or million in ten days, is a very large amount of hopefully reliable data, that I believe can be used to answer a lot of relevant questions about the progress of this pandemic and our very boring (For me, at least!) lockdown.
I hope, that the tests collect all the right data to go along with the physical data.
But I suspect that some important scientifically-correct questions won’t be asked. For instance.
- What is your place of birth?
- What is your BMI?
- How much exercise do you do every day?
- What is your religion?
- How often do you attend a religious service?
- How many in your household?
- How many generations in your household?
- Do you have a pet that needs exercise?
- Do you have any drug habits?
- Do you have any allergies?
- Do you smoke?
- How much alcohol do you drink?
- Are you vegetarian?
Only by collecting a full database alongside the testing process, will we get maximum value out of the testing.
The Anonymous Widower 
The place of birth question needs to be expanded to that of parents and maybe grandparents together with their race….. Given how this virus seems to affect different racial groups differently. Country of origin may also be useful given we are talking about continents like Africa and Asia which cover many groups.
Following on from the above blood groups and any difference in mortality or survival rates could be useful.
It would also be useful to know any prescription medication being taken given this might give a clue as to whether people on certain medication are better or worse affected in the extreme case that a medication for a totally unrelated conditions might actually be fighting for or against covid19 !
I still think an investigation into a sample of people who have had covid19 in a sample area should be undertaken to try and establish how and maybe where they become affected especially if they have no connection to health or social care work.
Comment by Melvyn | May 2, 2020 |
The more data the better!
I remember analysing a BT database of phone box fraud, where for location, they had used post-code. It made analysis very easy and we found that most fraud occurred from a string of phone boxes in a major station on a Thursday at a similar time. It turned out to be the local drug baron phoning the East for his supplies.
He didn’t believe in paying for anything.
A video film of the boxes got him arrested and he served a lot of time.
Comment by AnonW | May 2, 2020 |
The American University, Stansfield has done a lot of work on this subject. It was printed in Fridays Telegraph. I believe this virus has been about since autumn 2018. A lot of people in East Anglia had similar symptoms at three monthly intervals, last time this year, January to March. I had a similar reaction when working in Hainault in 1997. I have never felt so bad as then, I felt very suicidel, and depressed as well. Not like me at all, just normally a bit autistic.
Comment by jagracer | May 2, 2020 |
I can remember the Asian flu epidemic on 1957, which came from China and could have been a factor in the death of my grandmother. It killed well upwards of a million worldwide.
Comment by AnonW | May 2, 2020 |