A recent study by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) compared all deaths in Europe from week ending 3 January to week ending 12 June 2020. It found out that among all big cities, Madrid registered “the highest peek excess mortality” at 432.7%. The week ending 27 March was especially bad with the death rate four times higher than normal.
Such overwhelming figures, like those of war casualties, can be difficult to fully grasp. Covid-19 has wrecked jobs and families in unforeseen numbers. Most of us know that. But many others don't seem particularly fazed. Big rallies by people in denial, dismissing coronavirus as “a false alarm” as in Berlin last Saturday, are democratically legitimate yet worrying, if anything because they tend to turn violent (45 policemen were injured in the demonstration).
While statistics mean something to many, millions among us are still happy-go-lucky. Charts about the worst-hit cities like the ONS' may help crystalise in our minds how careful we all need to be; they make abstract numbers easier to sink in by turning these into something graphic and tangible. But statisticians' creativity – welcome as it obviously is – isn't enough in raising awareness.
