Earlier this week I recorded an interview with @CNNnews18 about the Indian govt response to #COVID19

I'm a bit disappointed with the 30s they chose to air yesterday. I won't link to the interview (it is geoblocked, anyway), but here are the points they *didn't* air...

1/6

First: we track *strictness* of the govt response. This doesn't tell you anything about whether the response is *effective*.
Given this has been a big debate in India (see linked tweet), it was the main reason I did the interview. They didn't air it.

2/6 https://twitter.com/BlavatnikSchool/status/1249441649157169154?s=20

Second: India is one of the strictest countries according to our measure. They did air this statement.
BUT there are many other countries at the same level (like 30!), India is not an outlier. They did not air this bit.

3/6

Third: our index only tells you about the things we measure. It doesn't include important things like testing. And so it can't tell the full story. (they aired part of this, but not all of it)

4/6

It takes time to explain these caveats in an interview. But our total discussion was only ~5mins. These important bits would have taken only 2-3 mins of airtime.

5/6

Instead, they mostly air a bit of the conversation about expected lags between policy changes and impact on case/death rate.

This is true, but the more important discussion was about understanding India's response in a global context. Or at least, that's why I went on.

6/6