A plea for common corona-reporting standards
As someone who literally started crying when the Western Cape started introducing spaces as a thousand separator in its daily coronavirus updates, I truly sympathise with this one. Our World In Data, a collaboration between Oxford University and the Global Data Change Lab, has published a set of recommendations for officials reporting Covid-19 stats. It’s inspired, in part, by the cluster frack executed by the UK government in its number mangling, but highlights why the lack of standards is hindering understanding. Go read here.
Recommendation number 1? Make the data public, and be more like Belgium (pictured), apparently.
Adam Oxford is a freelance journalist, media consultant and civic tech enthusiast. He also works closely with startups developing solutions to access to justice problems.