Oh, it's great to be back home again!... or is it?

[manofthecoldland]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

I think my job skills at this point would probably be limited to "Welcome to Walmart".  

 

'Mike Judging ' by the way the country seems to  be going right now, you wil leventually have to increase your professional greeting line to: "Welcome to Walmart. I love you."  as the Idiocracy prophesy comes to be. Then you will have to be competing with the ten thousand Filipina on-line opportunity seekers who have been practicing it to perfection, who will apply for work permits as our elderly population passes away and no current citizens are willing to take on the low paying job.   Said in jest.... hopefully.

[RBM]

On 8/6/2021 at 6:44 AM, Mike J said:

Nice that you are happy back in the USA "where she can come and go as she pleases without any of the Covid-19 restrictions that are in place back home.".   How is that working out for the rest of the USA population? 

                                     USA                     Philippines
Population                 331 million             109 million
Cases                       35,407,683               1,627,816
Deaths                           615,215                   28,247
Active cases              5,674,416                   66,895
Cases yesterday           112,277                     7,283

Do you seriously believe in the accuracy of the statistics here?

[Mike J]

34 minutes ago, RBM said:

Do you seriously believe in the accuracy of the statistics here?

Those are from the John Hopkins site.  Do you have alternate numbers?

 

[KC813]

20 hours ago, Mike J said:

Those are from the John Hopkins site.  Do you have alternate numbers?

 

Those are the numbers the government reported, so no, there probably won’t be any better or different numbers released by the Philippines.

Most Covid statistics routinely issued by the Philippines (and by many other countries) must to be evaluated by giving consideration given to local reporting irregularities/protocols, political PR desires and general (or lack of) government efficiencies.

Viewed in that context, most numbers reported in the Philippines have questionable value for other than spotting trends, and the numbers certainly cannot be equally compared to other countries.  But MikeJ, I think you knew that and was just yanking our chain a little! 

Just for fun, here are my lowly thoughts on some Philippine Covid stats:

The daily “New Cases” numbers have low value without knowing the number of people tested and their demographics.  At many times during this pandemic there were great variances in the numbers of people tested and in different geographic areas; both those factors directly effected the published ‘case numbers’ and as result, also skewed the published positivity rate.  But assuming there are sometimes periods of consistent testing, then the positive case count has some value when viewed over long periods of time.

The only value in showing a number for “Recovered” (other than complying with the govt’s “request” for the media to show it) is to remind the public of the very true fact that the vast majority of people who test positive will survive.  The same is true with the govt’s endorsement of showing a comparison between Philippine Covid numbers and select other countries of different sizes and reporting methods (India, US, Indonesia). Of course, the chart always results in making the Ph numbers (not %) look better.

 

I like to follow the hospital utilization rates as those are important for some of us old guys trying to get back over there.  It also gives a good indication of actual Covid conditions.  Even these have to be considered in the context in which they exist.  Recall that at several times in this long pandemic the government mandated hospitals to increase ICU and Covid beds.  Since then, some major facilities expanded their ICU capacity by over 250%, others created outside wards or repurposed other wards and common areas.  While the government and DOH like to cite the percentage of “available beds” as a positive indication of how well they are coping, we know that a 50% occupancy rate now means there are many more patients then what would have been a 50% occupancy a year ago.  Of course, we all know that having more beds available does not mean they also have more staff to adequately care for the patients in those beds.  Some on this forum have had direct experience with that problem!

I could go on and on but the point I am poorly making is that we should never take a published Covid statistic or comparison at face value.  Not all numbers are arrived at equally and reliably.

[Jack Peterson]

3 hours ago, KC813 said:

Those are the numbers the government reported, so no, there probably won’t be any better or different numbers released by the Philippines.

 Most Reported things are based on Information gained, if people ( and we know they do) make a bad or No report we are never going to get true Figures 

[hk blues]

Numbers eh. Statistics are facts when they support our argument yet lies, damned lies when they don't.

As Jack rightly points out, as long as the reporting is out then the data will be too. Rubbish In, Rubbish Out springs to mind.

Not just here either.