Coronavirus (Non-Politics)

[jackj13]

The strictest lockdown and slowest easing in the developed world and the most amount of vaccines administered, makes total sense? I fear a lot business are not going to make their reopening date.

 

[Ricky Otto]

My other half had her vaccine today at work, looks like they are doing the Met now

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Oh right, I didn't know that, didn't they go for herd Immunity from day one? That hasn't worked either then.

Yes.That was rather my point.(I've got a good English mate there who posts me fairly regular updates).

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Measuring Africa’s Data Gap: The cost of not counting the dead

Just eight countries in Africa have adequate death registration systems, a BBC investigation finds.

www.bbc.co.uk

This will make interesting reading for fans of that utterly ridiculous piece from a small ‘think tank’ in Brighton, quoted earlier in this thread, which lavished praise on how Africa has excelled so mightily in its’ COVID-19 response.

You can never rely on Covid death figures from places like Africa, China or Russia. Either because they don't record the deaths, they lie about the cause of death to suit, or they don't want to be seen as a Country that can't cope. I think we all guessed that those figures coming out of Africa were bonkers.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

The strictest lockdown and slowest easing in the developed world and the most amount of vaccines administered, makes total sense? I fear a lot business are not going to make their reopening date.

This is, of course a tricky one.For obvious reasons HMG doesn't want to enter another lockdown.

The dichotomy has always been posed between public health v wealth .That's a false argument IMO since you can't/shouldn't produce wealth if the nation's health is still at risk.It is ,of course,the first duty of any country to protect its citizens.

All bars and restaurants are still shut in France (and for large periods of the day in Spain).The vaccine rollout in those 2 countries has ,of course,been nothing like in the UK.Unfortunately.

 

[Member]

Measuring Africa’s Data Gap: The cost of not counting the dead

Just eight countries in Africa have adequate death registration systems, a BBC investigation finds.

www.bbc.co.uk

This will make interesting reading for fans of that utterly ridiculous piece from a small ‘think tank’ in Brighton, quoted earlier in this thread, which lavished praise on how Africa has excelled so mightily in its’ COVID-19 response.

It’s possible (probable?) that African countries have undercounted COVID-19 deaths, but have also done a good job in handling the pandemic, compared to western countries with infinitely more resources at disposal.

 

[SARF]

It's not a good idea to directly compare us to Sweden. For a start we've got one of the worst death rates in the world for Covid, so Sweden doing better than us at best shows they haven't failed quite as badly as we have to contain the virus, not that they got it right, but even that conclusion might be a bit ropy.

Sweden's population density is 24.5 people per square kilometer, ours is 272. Sweden is going to be lower than us simply because the average infected Swedish person is going to run into far less people than we would in the UK. If you look at their neighbouring countries of Finland and Norway (which not only have a similar culture to Sweden but also a low population density like them) you can see how badly Sweden have done.


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Sweden did better than us whilst operating a semi open economy and as I mentioned keeping kids in school, a Fairly vital part on the plan . Population density is an often used comparison disclaimer but most swedes live in the cities. Tho they do have a lot more single households and id imagine are less obese overall.
they followed the original plan most European countries had for a pandemic, and have not suffered any more than the rest of ‘Europe. The social and mental health implications for them will be far less

 

[Tinks]

Lighter note? 'My dad shuffled off'. I've got to say that did make me smile in a sad way. It reminded me of when my dad made the journey at 93. My mum rang very early morning and said 'he's gone', I repied 'I'll be over right away mum', she then said 'he's sat on the toilet and I'm desperate for the loo' !! Sad but ironically funny as well.

Sympathy to you and your family over your loss mate.

Haha - all joking aside this is very common and we often hear of people's last breathes being on the loo and also many elderly people have "falls" from the toilet

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Sweden did better than us whilst operating a semi open economy and as I mentioned keeping kids in school, a Fairly vital part on the plan . Population density is an often used comparison disclaimer but most swedes live in the cities. Tho they do have a lot more single households and id imagine are less obese overall.
they followed the original plan most European countries had for a pandemic, and have not suffered any more than the rest of ‘Europe. The social and mental health implications for them will be far less

My mate's kid in Sweden' is currently off school-self isolating- after his best friend caught covid.They live in the south of Sweden but nowhere near a big city (not even Malmo).

Your penultimate claim is simply not true.Check out the comparitive R rates for Denmark,Norway and Finland +excess death rates etc. All 3 are Scandinavian countries which went into lockdowns.Sweden chose not to.

Didn't Durkheim's classic study of suicide study cases in Sweden? (I seem to remember he found it to be the suicide capital of Europe).

 

[southendkid]

and have not suffered any more than the rest of ‘Europe.

Did you miss the graph I included showing they've performed much, much worse than Finland and Norway? Maybe you didn't notice their lines because of how much lower on the graph they were than Sweden.

 

[SARF]

Finland and Norway are now the rest of Europe? If you want to get into population density then those two really are good example . Denmark I agree is such better comparison with Sweden

 

[southendkid]

Finland and Norway are now the rest of Europe? If you want to get into population density then those two really are good example . Denmark I agree is such better comparison with Sweden

Finland pop. density per sqkm: 18.2
Norway pop. density per sqkm: 15
Sweden pop. density per sqkm: 25.4
Denmark pop. density per sqkm: 137

I'm struggling to see how Denmark is a better comparison than Finland or Norway considering the population density is nowhere similar but if you want to look at it then Sweden has still fared much worse:

 

[rigsby]

Funny how we shouldn’t compare ourselves to Sweden but so many compare them to other Scandinavian countries.

Andybody fancy explaining the success of Greece ?

 

[Napster]

Funny how we shouldn’t compare ourselves to Sweden but so many compare them to other Scandinavian countries.

Andybody fancy explaining the success of Greece ?

eh? they had one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.

 

[pottster]

I think we will be looking for comparisons for years to come, and there will be countless papers written to explain why we got hit so badly. Timing of lockdown, how people obeyed the lockdown, population density, population health, population age, and climate I would have thought would be factors. I'm sure this will be debated for years to come. At least we got the vaccine right.

 

[rigsby]

eh? they had one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.

Did they not go to supermarkets then?

Nightclubs were also open in the summer. They also allowed 40% of office staff in Athens rather than all work from home like most places in London.

Thats without the usual Greek practices. Like having Hotels available for private functions.....If the price was right.

 

[jackj13]

I think we will be looking for comparisons for years to come, and there will be countless papers written to explain why we got hit so badly. Timing of lockdown, how people obeyed the lockdown, population density, population health, population age, and climate I would have thought would be factors. I'm sure this will be debated for years to come. At least we got the vaccine right.

The roll out of the vaccine yes. The roadmap released reads almost as if we haven't vaccinated nearly 18 million people. Care home residents could have 1 visitor last summer with nobody vaccinated so that hasn't changed. We also can't step foot inside a family members home until the 17th May at the very earliest. That's nearly 2 months away.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Funny how we shouldn’t compare ourselves to Sweden but so many compare them to other Scandinavian countries.

Andybody fancy explaining the success of Greece ?

Or the lack of sucess of Spain or France?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

The roll out of the vaccine yes. The roadmap released reads almost as if we haven't vaccinated nearly 18 million people. Care home residents could have 1 visitor last summer with nobody vaccinated so that hasn't changed. We also can't step foot inside a family members home until the 17th May at the very earliest. That's nearly 2 months away.

The British pm is clearly listening to the scientific advice.He's in the mainstream.You aren't.

 

[jackj13]

The British pm is clearly listening to the scientific advice.He's in the mainstream.You aren't.

If the scientists had their way we'd have restrictions until the end of the year and never totally release us at all. Even Patrick Vallance at the press conference last night said we may have to have some restrictions in the winter/early next year.

You simply cannot live life like that. Life revolves around social contact, personal responsibility and perception of risk. Don't feel safe in somewhere that's open don't go, carry on keeping your distance and wear a mask if you like. But you cannot keep these restrictions forever.