Yes the systematic undercounting of deaths by the inclusion only of hospital deaths in the headline figures has been one of the big scandals of this crisis and I have been amazed at the supine way in which the mass media have continued to report UK data as in any way comparable to any other.

This has gone long past the stage of initial teething problems in data collation and appears to be a deliberate PR strategy to make the UK performance look less bad than it actually is. Right wing sources have also tried to confuse the issue by comparing with deaths that would/might have occurred due to seasonal flu or other factors in any case as if this mitigated the extent of the public health failure.

Other right wing sources have sought to confuse the issue by referring to the age and number of underlying conditions of the deceased as if having a co-morbidity was a disqualifying factor for being considered a Covid-19 fatality.

At least some countries, such as France, have sought to remedy the initial exclusion of non-hospital based deaths by including them in more recent daily totals. It is extraordinary in this day and age of online data collection that we may never know the true death toll in some allegedly advanced societies with comprehensive health care systems such as the UK.

I know there have been various data collection issues in other countries as well some of which can be attributed to regional authorities simply being overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster in their areas. It is understandable that data collection is not a primary concern when you are struggling to deal with the afflicted.

But the politicisation of death, the fact that for some people deaths matter less if they are among the aged, otherwise ill, otherwise marginalised communities, and outside the formal hospital system, and thus more hidden or deniable is the scandal of the age.

We see it in the anti-lockdown protests in the US and Brazil, supported by their Presidents which place the economic interests of the majority above the lives of minorities.

In Ireland, too, a couple of headbanger right-wing journalists, who have received less than 1% of the vote whenever they have stod for election, have brought a legal challenge against the constitutionality of emergency legislation unanimously passed by parliament on the grounds that it infringes their unalienable right to infect others.

Crises bring out the best in people, but they also bring out the very worst.

Index of Frank's Diaries