It's difficult in broadcasting. Linear news doesn't easily deliver facts and figures so that you can look across a balance sheet. I'd like the main BBC News bulletins at 6pm and 10pm to be a bit more methodical, and up their commitment to statistics.
The daily offering - deaths, new infections, hospital admissions, and vaccinations - needs expansion and breaking down further, at least on some days of the week.
Why do we stick to deaths within a 28 day positive test ? Work at Leicester suggests a longer date range would hugely increase that figure. I can sense those Newsgathering planners going bananas when we reach 100,000 deaths by the 28 day measure - but let's have some real perspective. Not just the ONS excess deaths, but a look at those struggling with long-term lung, heart and kidney side effects of a Covid infection. And please, once a week, can we isolate and report deaths in care homes ?
Why not break the new infections down by variant, occasionally ? Is the Kent variant just rolling around the country, gradually spreading north and west ?
Can we break down hospital admissions ? In the first wave we were told you more at risk through age, pre-existing conditions, weight, ethnicity, socio-economic deprivation, and job category. Is that true for the second wave ? Are bus drivers still a problem ? How many NHS staff are in NHS beds ?
And some other targets ? How many more doctors and nurses are there in the NHS compared with a year ago ?
As you might imagine, I could go on......
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