Tim Hartford – Financial Times – This essay is adapted from Tim Harford’s podcast, “Cautionary Tales.”. His book, “How to Make The World Add Up”, is out in paperback. [please read the entire article – Hartford describes pivotal issues specific to CI/BI, data analytics and data validation, the history of Excel, and the impact of using the Public Health England (PHE) wrong Excel file when collecting COVID data.

“…But back in September and October, when the UK was also reopening against a strikingly similar backdrop of rising cases, we had no vaccine to protect us. Instead, we were trying to defend ourselves with data. And we didn’t seem to be nearly as enamoured of data as we now are of vaccines. That is a shame, because when you’re relying on numbers to keep you safe, it’s important to put some effort into keeping your numbers straight…”