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Distant socialising
Among other things, writer JAN WOOLF reflects on statistics as an anaesthetic, disinfectant as the only Covid joke in town and how 'normal' has become a contentious word
PIC CAP CHANNELLING VERA LYNN: The Rolling Stones Photo: Jim Pietryga/Wikipedia

IDEALLY THIS POSTER WOULD SHOW YOU THE WAY — spotted on London Underground before lockdown. An image that says it all. Well, if not all, quite a lot in an ideal world.

Much of the news this week has been delivered through the anaesthetising mutations of statistics, as if in lockdown we can do the rapid calculations required to know if we, or those close to us, are at risk.

Have you ever met anyone who is statistically suffering? Or is comforted by a set of figures?

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