Who do they pay to draw up theses maps? To quote Mark Twain “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
According to the map the remote farming communities of Rum, Muck and Eigg in the Western Isles have a higher lever of infection than Central London and indeed anywhere south of the Severn Wash line.
Is it any wonder people are confused and have a mistrust of statistics and what we are being told.
It's because these are infection rates, not levels of infection - as the rubric clearly indicates. It would possibly be more meaningful to weight the test rates by population density, but then people would have an even harder time deciphering what they are seeing.
Why is the North and West regions so badly impacted?
There are no clear answers, so far.
I suspect it's got a lot to do with socio-economic differences like average family sizes, ability to spend money on hygiene equipment/face masks etc, overall population density, and ability to understand/willingness to comply with social distancing.
