BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Hello and welcome to More or Less. Mostly more it seems. I'm Tim Haafard. Last week

I told you that today would be the last programme in the series. Apparently not. People were

keen to get more of that smooth, statistical groove into their lives. Something only more

or less can provide. And so Radio 4 asked if we wouldn't mind making a couple more episodes.

Last when I thought it was out, they pulled me back in. But enough about next week and

the week after that, let's live for today. And that means quarantine. The UK is going

to quarantine arrivals from the rest of the world. We ask whether it shouldn't be the

other way around. We examine the idea that Covid-19 mostly kills people who were about

to die anyway. And we play with some mathematical puzzles, courtesy of statistician Jen Rogers.

First though, at the end of last week, the government released its initial figures

showing how well its test and trace programme was performing. And we thought we've got

someone who enjoys looking at the government's testing numbers. So we sat down our producer,

Kate Lambel, for her dream afternoon. Her pencil, a scrap of paper, a glass of slow gin,

and lots and lots of numbers. What did you find, Kate?

Well the gin was excellent, homemade on the rocks, you know, perfect.

What sounds like the quintessential lockdown beverage I was actually thinking more of the

numbers though. Ah, them. Well there's a bit of mystery with the numbers.

Oh I love a mystery, go on. The idea behind the test and trace programme

is that if someone tests positive, they're followed up and their contacts are traced,

which sounds straightforward. But when you dig into the figures, you find one really

interesting number, the people who were referred to test and trace in the first place.

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