Comment on: On the role of data, statistics and decisions in a pandemic statistics for climate protection and health—dare (more) progress!

Abstract

In the Corona pandemic, it became clear with burning clarity how much good quality statistics are needed, and at the same time how unsuccessful we are at providing such statistics despite the existing technical and methodological possibilities and diverse data sources. It is therefore more than overdue to get to the bottom of the causes of these issues and to learn from the findings. This defines a high aspiration, namely that firstly a diagnosis is carried out in which the causes of the deficiencies with their interactions are identified as broadly as possible. Secondly, such a broad diagnosis should result in a therapy that includes a coherent strategy that can be generalised, i.e. that goes beyond the Corona pandemic.