I agree with your analysis klondike. Whilst we do not see eye to eye on the subject of masks, things I have seen recently lead me to believe that the statistics we get are nowhere near accurate. All the 'experts' laughed when Trump declared "More tests, more positives", bur experience has proved him right. Unless a figure of positives is tied to the number of tests, i.e., X positives per 10,000 tests we will never have a valid figure and in truth we will never know anyway.
Today's news is that 25% of the population may be immune anyway because of pre-loaded T cells (this was predicted some time ago). Add to that the vast numbers who suffer no symptoms and it is impossible that an accurate idea of the infection rate will ever be known.
I saw an expose' on ITV's Today programme the other day showing how some test kits were being handled. It was a disgrace with boxes just tipped out on tables and sorted in what looked like a warehouse, with no attention paid to order, or hygiene and as I predicted in another thread last nigh on BBC2 'experts' laid bare the muddle they were in with two admitting that they got the protection measures for care homes wrong because they simply forgot to ask how the homes operated which exposed 20,000 to an early death.
Yet, we blame the inexpert politicians for making the wrong decisions. How could they do anything else under the circumstances? They are not without fault, but who else should they rely on?
Mike.X