Sir, – On February 2nd, 101 Covid-related deaths were reported by the Department of Health. Various headlines followed in the mainstream media, including The Irish Times. The mortality figure has been described as the “highest day for deaths” since the pandemic began and our “darkest day”. However, this announcement followed the reporting of 10 Covid-related deaths on Monday, February 1st, and 15 on Sunday, January 31st. It is not likely that any cause of death would differ by a factor of ten-fold from day to day. A much more likely scenario is that sometimes deaths with Covid are reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and Department of Health in batches, leading to peaks on certain days and troughs on other days.
Indeed the chief medical officer confirmed that of the 101 reported deaths, 18 had occurred in February (which must have been on February 1st or 2nd), while the remainder occurred in January.
However, the media tends to omit these observations in their reporting, instead preferring to sensationalise the data.
While all Covid-related deaths are sad, surely it is time that their numbers are imparted on a less regular basis (for example weekly), so that artificial peaks and troughs in the data are smoothed out. – Yours, etc,
HELEN
GALLAGHER,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.