The Covid-19 pandemic – A statistical interpretation updated in early 2021

Abstract

One year after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, on the world graph of daily morbidity can be seen that we are in the downturn of the third epidemic wave, consistent with the downturn of the third wave of daily deaths from/with Covid-19. However, the written press and the audiovisual media continue to present alarming balance sheets several times a day that lead the public to the idea of public danger. Doubts about the adequacy of declaring the pandemic were interpreted by some "naysayers" as doubts about the existence of the disease and the virus, and some loudly expressed their opposition against the prophylactic measures. Increasingly, public opinion, the press, and the judiciary system are shedding light on the causes of these approaches, which claim to be based on scientific criteria but sometimes prove to be pseudo-scientific, causing an „infodemic”. The best objective orientation in this informational chaos is based on the mathematical-statistical processing of official data that is centralized daily from all countries of the world and published on the Internet. The statistical calculation suggests that in addition to the inequalities inherent in different populations, there are also cases of over-reporting, overdiagnosis, over-treatment, and/or over-media coverage of the Covid-19 case practice. As a general conclusion, the virus is real, the disease is real, but the risk to public health is not particularly serious except in certain geographical areas. If scientifically established prophylaxis and treatment measures are followed, the pandemic may end this year.