Political journalism is largely infected with the same populism virus as the rest of society now, so we'll…

Political journalism is largely infected with the same populism virus as the rest of society now, so we'll struggle to get much useful analysis while elections are underway. Let's talk about the ONS survey and trends here. /1 #auspol https://t.co/KkTV0KxSpV

In the UK, which has some of the best public health data in the world, experts are already saying much of it is now almost worthless, because of the deliberate, ongoing erosion of basics like testing. 'Flying blind' is a common saying to describe the situation. /2

Here in Oz, a question a political journalist should ask, today, is 'how are infections going in schools?' I've not heard one question on that critical topic. The way the RAT system was rolled out, any data that exists is unlikely to be more than indicative anyway. /3

These are deliberate political decisions, to remove any remaining resistance to 'live with the virus', by suppressing visibility of the impact of that strategy. Leaders have been quite explicit that they don't like the data, that it hinders their messaging. /4

The ONS survey in the UK was the last gold-standard data remaining, after the knee-capping of testing. Of course the Tories there are planning to gut its funding. Tory MPs openly attack the release of Covid data, saying it prevents the 'live with the virus' push. /5

Politics is now data. We've been very badly let down by most of our political journalism, which seems both disinterested in the data, and totally incapable of making sense of it. /end