Yu Tian, Tan Meng, Maozai Tian, and Zhaoya Zhou’s contribution to the Discussion of ‘Some statistical aspects of the Covid-19 response’ by Wood et al.

Comments and suggestionsWe congratulate Wood, et al. for discussing some statistical aspects of the U.K. Covid-19 pandemic response.This article gives an in-depth discussion on the statistical applications, misuse and abuse in the fight against the epidemic.To one who has worked extensively on the pandemic response and related areas, this is all a new mirror image universe.It can be sure that the same will apply to many readers of journal JRSS-A, and may inspire many follow-up works.Covid-19 pandemic has historically posed profound threats to human being worldwide, with claiming millions of lives and exposing the fragility of global health systems.The emergence of the COVID-19 in late 2019 escalated this threat to an unprecedented scale.This article explores several statistical aspects of the response to the COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, paying special attention to the situations where statistically questionable methods or presentation has had a substantial impact on public perception, or government policy.Some issues regarding the use of life loss data, excess mortality, and case data are raised.The consequences of ignoring most individual differences in epidemic models, and some other statistically significant omissions are covered.All the discussions of the article have important practical value.