Posted: Wed May 13, 2020 12:09pm
In the UK its not about being honest or dishonest. Deaths are registered but there's no central clearing house for deeming them "Corona" based. At the beginning they used hospital confirmed covid cases because that data is robust. Later they added care homes when that became more apparent. But this data isn't daily. The remaining deaths may or may not be clarified as covid or may be suspect covid. So basically unreliable data. But work can be carried out comparing to average year death rates, the so-called excess deaths. These are not necessarily Covid but might be secondary increases caused by lack of other hospital services. Its actually quote difficult to know.
In America there might be a political pressure due to re-election of senators and governors etc. But personally I doubt it. Given the awful rate of deaths there - worse than Vietnam by far, anyone claiming glory for low death rates is on thin ice.
Everyone like to bash China. I'm not sure they have hidden anything. At the time the world was amazed how many were dying. Its only now with hindsight when the west is so bad do we allege cover up. China has its faults - er, OK it has a great many faults, but on this breakout - once they finally accepted they had an issue, they seem to have been fairly honest and open.
Each nation seems to have different reporting techniques. Personally the only types of country I'm suspicious of are Brazil, Iran, and the poorer countries where the infrastructure is basically trashed. And I include India - even though they have the bones of a good cicilk service in principle, but far too many people.