Recent Posts

The simplest version of the central limit theorem (CLT) says that if \(X_1, \dots, X_n\) are iid random variables with mean \(\mu\) and finite variance \(\sigma^2\) \[ \frac{\bar{X}_n - \mu}{\sigma/\sqrt{n}} \rightarrow_d N(0,1) \] where \(\bar{X}_n = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^n X_i\).

Some years back, I wrote a monologue for the Economics Department Skit Night at UPenn. It was a niche venue, granted, but the crowd seemed to enjoy my contribution. In honor of April Fool’s day I’ve posted a lightly-edited version below.

Since my previous post, the Office for National Statistics has posted updated data on weekly deaths, and we’ve updated rcovidUK accordingly. Here’s where things stand: Figure 1: Total Weekly Deaths in England & Wales.

In an earlier post I looked at regional differences in the effects of Covid-19 by calculating excess deaths in each week of 2020 relative to an average of the preceding five years.

To get a better idea of the impact of Covid19 in the UK, Dan Mead and put together an R package rcovidUK with weekly deaths in England and Wales, taken from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), allowing us to produce a plot of total deaths by region in 2020: Figure 1: Total Weekly Deaths in England & Wales.