Coronavirus

[Sippo]

Of course individuals need to take responsibility for their own actions. Unless they're senior govt figures, of course. But individuals can only have a small impact, govt policy has a massive impact. Even the hugley pro-Johnson Telegraph admits we could have prevented 3/4 of deaths if the govt had locked down a week earlier:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/20/earlier-lockdown-could-have-prevented-three-quarters-uk-coronavirus/

Don’t get me wrong Boris has fucked up. I thought after he came out of hospital he would have realised how bad it actually was. Lockdown should have been stricter. Missed opportunities to shut everything for a certain period of time ie. Easter weekend.

I still think the public could have been more responsible. Cheltenham race’s shouldn’t have happened. Schools and shops should have shut sooner. Crowds should never have happened, even know on the beaches. We are far from this pandemic being over or reduced.

[horlock07]

If you look at the UK the highest death rates relate to England, understandable due to the bigger population. Compare population density and England's is higher than Spain or Italy. Belgium has a high population density and they have suffered a high percentage of deaths. There's a lot of factors in this.

I really cannot be arsed to trawl back and find it, but the figures for places like South Korea and Singapore which have densities vastly greater than ours just illustrate that the whole density argument is just a red herring spouted by our habitually bullshitting leaders and grabbed by Johnson apologists to try and justify the unjustifiable.

[suttonred]

That's down to the lightweight lockdown. The tighter the measures the lower the death rate. New Zealand did it right.

NZ has a distinct advantage of being isolated with a lot of space and low population though. Their problems will come when the borders open.

[horlock07]

Cheltenham race’s shouldn’t have happened.

It shouldn't but it did mainly because it going ahead was entirely in line with government guidelines at the time as beautifully illustrated by Johnson attending the 6 nations game that weekend, whilst still babbling on about shaking hands with C-19 sufferers, taking it on the chin and all that bollocks.

Ireland had already cancelled their 6 nations game and St Patrick's Day by this date and they have suffered considerably less.

[horlock07]

NZ has a distinct advantage of being isolated with a lot of space and low population though. Their problems will come when the borders open.

It also has an advantage of being led by an adult not a fucking glove puppet!

[Bogus Dave]

If you look at the UK the highest death rates relate to England, understandable due to the bigger population. Compare population density and England's is higher than Spain or Italy. Belgium has a high population density and they have suffered a high percentage of deaths. There's a lot of factors in this.

The FT chart shows that Belgium has a lower death rate per population than the UK does, even if it has a higher population density

[4D]

I really cannot be arsed to trawl back and find it, but the figures for places like South Korea and Singapore which have densities vastly greater than ours just illustrate that the whole density argument is just a red herring spouted by our habitually bullshitting leaders and grabbed by Johnson apologists to try and justify the unjustifiable.

The stats from this virus are bizarre. You look at places where you would think it would spread like wildfire and it doesn't. Perhaps that's down to the strain or mutation of the virus? Madrid has suffered 9000 deaths compared to London's 6000. Care to elaborate why you think that might be? Madrid has less than half the population of London too.

[Flashheart]

Cheltenham race’s shouldn’t have happened.

Correct.

And if the government stopped it, it would not have went ahead.
The government did not stop it.
So, it went ahead.

[horlock07]

Admittedly this is a fortnight out of date but...

South Korea Population 51,780,579, density 1,339/sq. mile: 259 deaths
Hong Kong Population 7,500,700, density 17,565/sq. mile 4 deaths
Taiwan: Population 23,604,2650, density 1,689/sq. mile 7 deaths
Singapore Population  5,703,600, density 20,445 /sq. mile 21 deaths
UK Population  67,886,004 , density 725 /sq. mile 33,186 deaths

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Different strains of the virus in different countries?

Different demographic in different countries?

You’d have thought it would be rampant and unstoppable throughout Africa - yet it remains pretty unscathed. Africa, as a whole, has a very young average age of the population.

The thousands of elderly people killed by the virus would have died years, or even decades, ago in another part of the world of something else.

I’d like to know the % of people under 60 with no known underlying health issues who have succumbed to the virus. I’d guess it’s small - no less harrowing for their friends and relatives.

The scandal is that across Europe the elderly have been sacrificed.

[Abrahammer]

It’s only now we can say we should have locked down earlier with any sort of proof to back that up.

At the time it was all educated guess work, we haven’t had a situation like this before so no handbook existed on how to deal with it based on similar previous pandemics.

Hindsight is easy

[StfcRusty]

The stats from this virus are bizarre. You look at places where you would think it would spread like wildfire and it doesn't. Perhaps that's down to the strain or mutation of the virus?

I think this is an important and overlooked point.

I would have thought India would have been decimated. They’ve actually faired comparatively well.
It shows scientists still don’t know many things about this virus. All govts need to have the humility to admit we’re all still learning and should be prepared to admit mistakes and improve.

[Batch]

what a massive surprise that 'world beating' track and trace isn't:

"Dido Harding just told me on an MPs’ conference call that Test, Trace & Isolate won’t be fully operational at local level till the end of June. Not sure where that leaves Johnson’s promise of a fully operational “world beating” system by Monday.#Covid19UK"

[horlock07]

Not taking credit for this as its nicked off Twitter but some good questions.

The government abandoned contact tracing in early March (despite WHO advice being test and trace). Why did they do that if they now see it as a good thing?
Why didn’t they scale up contact tracing while they scaled up mortuaries?
Why were they preparing for illness and death rather than preventing it?

[Batch]

they weren't ready to do it