People have been asking me to debunk this thread "proving" that COVID-19 deaths are false positives by correlating things, but instead I thought I'd simply list a few things that are more well correlated than this https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath/status/1317009608448290816 …
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US spending on science, and suicides by hanging/strangulation/suffocation 99.97% "Biology just isn't like that"pic.twitter.com/BqeZEHL4fE
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Divorce in Maine, consumption of margarine 99.26% "Biology just isn't like that"pic.twitter.com/AGpnDWRBbS
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Arcade revenue and computer science doctorates 98.51% "Biology just isn't like that"pic.twitter.com/WS23RWtjNf
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These are all from the excellent Spurious Correlations website from Tyler Vigen, who also has a book out of the same name https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations …
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Anyway, it's perhaps not surprising that COVID-19 positive tests in hospital and deaths from COVID-19 would track somewhat, so there's not really much to debunk
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Replying to @GidMK
I still don't quite get it - isn't she claiming deaths correlate with number of tests, not positives? You seem to be addressing something different to what she's saying - ie the correlation between A (deaths) and B (positives), when she's suggesting both are caused by C (tests)?
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Replying to @DanDbab
She's saying that since the deaths correlate with number of tests done, all tests are false positives. There's no consideration that the main underlying cause for an increase in tests is that COVID-19 cases increased
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Replying to @GidMK
1/2 Right cheers, that what I thought she was saying. IMO that's a bit different to saying positives correlate with deaths therefore deaths are false positives - an increase in testing obviously would raise # false positives to some degree, so it's at least a sensical claim.
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2/2 But of course I use the world sensical liberally, and if understand the implications of test positivity correctly, not very likely (again): https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&country=GBR~AUS®ion=World&positiveTestRate=true&interval=smoothed&perCapita=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=total_cases&pickerSort=desc …pic.twitter.com/0rpsNjQYmV
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While it's true that the absolute number of false +ves increase with the number of tests done, I don't think it's a reasonable claim. As you say, it's wildly unlikely that any large proportion of the deaths are "false +ve" deaths in the UK
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(The unlikeliness of it that is, not it.)
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