Hmmm, there's a saying that relates to the study of Statistics,...

Hmmm, there's a saying that relates to the study of Statistics, which goes something like this:

If you torture a set of data he right way, it will confess to any crime of your choosing.
(One corollary of that saying is "Correlation is not sufficient for causality.")

For example, I happened to be doing a bit of reading in recent weeks about the impact of Covid on some of the world's poorer countries.

In the South African case, Time Magazine on 23 July cited a study by the South African Medical Research Council (https://time.com/5870723/south-africa-coronavirus-death-rate/) which suggested that

"...the "excess deaths could be attributed to COVID-19 as well as to other widespread diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis while many health resources are redirected towards the pandemic"

and that..

"Some South Africans are thought to be avoiding health facilities as fears of the new virus spread and public hospitals were overwhelmed"

The South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is quoted in the report as saying, "In all countries with COVID-19 we are seeing this."

.