Vidqun and Bartolomeo - I agree it is vital to think things through yourself. When people learn arithmetic, you learn HOW to do the calculation. It is called MATHS.
Jesus' disciples in Greek were called the MATHETE. It is where we get the word 'maths' from.
There is a saying, "there are lied, damn lies and statistics."
If an orchard owner has 1536 trees which yielded 263504 apples this year, you have to be a real expert at apples, with a lot of time on your hand to go and check those figures. Or check any calculations/stats run of the back of those figures.
Regarding the health data and stats - how many people could check the truth of the statistics?
I was in the UK Health services as an IT Developer. I know I was passed made up data. When I challenged the team which passed me this nonsense, I was raged at. In the end I handed in my notice because my job was being made impossible to do. This was a few years before the 'pandemic.' Incidentally I was told (by a fellow team member) that the entire IT team had long since given up doing their jobs because they had been hamstrung. This chap sat beside a broken window, there were electric cables that ran through the walls beside him. When it rained, the rain came through onto the inner walls. It had been like that for well over 12 months. Nothing got done about it.