Do the number of iterations for a PCR test change over time? I recall cycles in the mid 20s being discussed as reasonable for viable virus whereas cycles often reached 40 in practice for a “positive”, likely indicating detritus or fragments of non-viable virus.
Maybe plot cases per person countrywide on top of cases per person in the trust. Perhaps places where the shapes of those curves diverge would indicate a divergence in testing practices. The dates of that happening could correspond to some recognizable events.
"could it be that the test that was initially very specific to COVID simply became a catch-all for both COVID and non-COVID viral infection?" Very likely, yes. Pneumonia from bacterial or other viral pathogens was often counted as Covid especially when accompanied by a false positive test. Pneumonia diagnoses and deaths went way down in the early part of the pandemic which doesn't make much sense unless those deaths were simply being "borrowed" and counted as Covid deaths. Here's my analysis of some US data on this issue: https://tamhunt.medium.com/is-cdc-borrowing-pneumonia-deaths-from-the-long-term-care-population-and-adding-them-to-the-17ace805747
I am a student of medical history, and my own analysis of these figures reveals that 66.6% of all Covid deaths were primarily from 'The Vapours' and the remaining 33.3% were of 'Hysteria'.
Normally a course of leeches would have saved many of them from their sad demise.
Do the number of iterations for a PCR test change over time? I recall cycles in the mid 20s being discussed as reasonable for viable virus whereas cycles often reached 40 in practice for a “positive”, likely indicating detritus or fragments of non-viable virus.
Yep, the cycles change over time as well as primers and this will be a monster unknown variable that affects things.
Edit: Is there no way to estimate total test count given within the Trust in a timeframe?
Yes indeed, this will be a monster variable of itself but there's no way of estimating this.
Maybe plot cases per person countrywide on top of cases per person in the trust. Perhaps places where the shapes of those curves diverge would indicate a divergence in testing practices. The dates of that happening could correspond to some recognizable events.
“asymptomatic COVID death”
People who survived their five other comorbidities and died from the one they didn’t know they’d got.
"could it be that the test that was initially very specific to COVID simply became a catch-all for both COVID and non-COVID viral infection?" Very likely, yes. Pneumonia from bacterial or other viral pathogens was often counted as Covid especially when accompanied by a false positive test. Pneumonia diagnoses and deaths went way down in the early part of the pandemic which doesn't make much sense unless those deaths were simply being "borrowed" and counted as Covid deaths. Here's my analysis of some US data on this issue: https://tamhunt.medium.com/is-cdc-borrowing-pneumonia-deaths-from-the-long-term-care-population-and-adding-them-to-the-17ace805747
I am a student of medical history, and my own analysis of these figures reveals that 66.6% of all Covid deaths were primarily from 'The Vapours' and the remaining 33.3% were of 'Hysteria'.
Normally a course of leeches would have saved many of them from their sad demise.
Don't forget inspecting the skull through well-established phrenological techniques. That would have saved a gazillion lives at least.