National COVID numbers - Benford's law looks for errors

Malcolm Sambridge; Andrew Jackson

doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01565-5

National COVID numbers - Benford's law looks for errors

Malcolm Sambridge, Andrew Jackson

Geophysics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Given the importance of accurate reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths to strategies for virus control, we screened countries daily records for possible misreporting by applying Benfords law. This can pick up unreliable numbers resulting from error, oversight or manipulation, for instance although it cannot distinguish their possible causes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	384
Number of pages	1
Journal	Nature
Volume	581
Issue number	7809
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01565-5
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2020

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title = "National COVID numbers - Benford's law looks for errors",

abstract = "Given the importance of accurate reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths to strategies for virus control, we screened countries daily records for possible misreporting by applying Benfords law. This can pick up unreliable numbers resulting from error, oversight or manipulation, for instance although it cannot distinguish their possible causes.",

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National COVID numbers - Benford's law looks for errors

Abstract

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