Coronavirus

I do find the whole, "People who died from Covid-19 would only have died from something else soon, anyway" shtick quite odd.

It's a bit like when all those poor folk die in stampedes in Mecca during the Hajj. A couple of thousand were crushed to death back in 2015, but no need to fear, because the Saudi religious authorities decreed that the deaths were God's will and they would all have died at the same time even if they had been elsewhere in the world.

How strange that the Covid-sceptics among us are so determined to latch onto similar logic.

Covid deaths statistics do not include patients who have died because they have been unable to get hospital treatment due to hospital beds full of covid patients. These people have died without having contracted covid, but covid stopped them having life saving treatment.

When you try to look at the overall picture of covid deaths and associated deaths it is very hard to come to any conclusion about any of the statistics. As Mariner91 points out their are guide lines and if covid related deaths are not in these guide lines then they are not included in govt. gold standard figures.

That's why the excess deaths numbers are the only real thing to look at. Unfortunately, the reductions in cancer screening and the like over the past year means that the pandemic is going to have a long tail as people who otherwise would have been treated successfully are going to lose their lives a lot sooner in coming years.

A pretty impossible situation for the NHS to deal with. I don't doubt that the balance could have been better, but then we just didn't know much about the illness during the first few months of the pandemic and we're still in the dark about a lot of things even now.

Quoted from DB

Covid deaths statistics do not include patients who have died because they have been unable to get hospital treatment due to hospital beds full of covid patients. These people have died without having contracted covid, but covid stopped them having life saving treatment.

When you try to look at the overall picture of covid deaths and associated deaths it is very hard to come to any conclusion about any of the statistics. As Mariner91 points out their are guide lines and if covid related deaths are not in these guide lines then they are not included in govt. gold standard figures.

The best thing is to view any official figures with a healthy dose of scepticism. There are far too many variables to ever get an accurate guide - a comprehensive breakdown of covid deaths around the world provided by another poster contained the caveat that different countries have different methods of counting a covid death. Quite.

Each country is unique. There are downsides to the way we live life normally in the west and this is one of them

Healthy scepticism is fine, if you have an idea what you’re talking about.

Sticking your head in the sand, denying what’s obvious in this weaselly, quisling way just because you can’t bare to take any responsibility for your part in this social cleansing is not fine.

People would rather watch over 100,000 of their fellow citizens die, the economy tank and untold damage done to future generations than admit they picked the wrong horse. Not even that, they daren’t tell the horse to get its act together. A nation of cowards and bullies awaiting their instructions from the billionaires that run the place.

As I've said before I'm neither red or blue. I don't think it mattered  who was in number 10 when the covid outbreak started. All what was know was that it was an unknown killer virus, initially from nowhere.

Very little was known about it and there was no history to fall back on or precedent to use. It is easy now to look back and say this or that should have been done but, as we all know, when at a crossroads of life which way do you turn?

Boris made some bad decisions and made some good decisions. I think if Stammers was in the same position he would also have made mistakes, probably not the same but similar.

Many months ago I came to the conclusion that the figures presented to us are what the government want us to see. They may verge on some truth but some are manipulated.

With respect, its clear that forcing people into unsafe conditions - primarily at work or school - is having the effect of dragging this virus out well beyond what would be reasonable, and this is primarily because people cannot afford to miss work.

The options were laid before Boris at the start of the pandemic and it was explained in plain terms what was, and still is, needed to support people and stop them being forced into situations where the virus would spread.



We’re STILL WAITING, and the economy is tanking, because the govt are ideologically wedded to siphoning off our money into the pockets of their mates rather than actually managing the country. It couldn’t be clearer.

Quoted from DB

As I've said before I'm neither red or blue. I don't think it mattered  who was in number 10 when the covid outbreak started. All what was know was that it was an unknown killer virus, initially from nowhere.

Very little was known about it and there was no history to fall back on or precedent to use. It is easy now to look back and say this or that should have been done but, as we all know, when at a crossroads of life which way do you turn?

Boris made some bad decisions and made some good decisions. I think if Stammers was in the same position he would also have made mistakes, probably not the same but similar.

Many months ago I came to the conclusion that the figures presented to us are what the government want us to see. They may verge on some truth but some are manipulated.

List a few good decisions if you can, they seem rather thin on the ground, whether anyone else could do better is a mute point but if you look at our mortality rate compared to every  country there seems no one who could have done worse.

Quoted from DB

As I've said before I'm neither red or blue. I don't think it mattered  who was in number 10 when the covid outbreak started. All what was know was that it was an unknown killer virus, initially from nowhere.

Very little was known about it and there was no history to fall back on or precedent to use. It is easy now to look back and say this or that should have been done but, as we all know, when at a crossroads of life which way do you turn?

When the hospitals were overrun in Lombardy, one of the wealthiest regions in Europe with excellent health care facilities, in mid to late Feb, it was clear this was serious. Boris just carried on shaking those hands (when he wasn’t sitting on them).

As I said I'm not red or blue so you guy's pick spots of each other and the country is in a mess. I only got involved because of this:-

I would much prefer to know exactly how many people have died of covid and only covid with no other underlying illness's.

Simple question which has not had a simple answer. Many varying opinions, red herrings, govt guides etc, but no answer so what is this simple figure? It's not 100,000 but could be half, or a quarter, or 10% etc.