In July people on Leicester were 40 times less likely to be hospitalised than the WHO suggests

[Treesofwood]

So apparently only 7 out of over 1300 confirmed with Covid in July in Leicester were hospitalised. According to WHO that should be closer to 250. So what's their secret? How does this measure up to hospitalisation rates for other illnesses?

@latticechaos

Ok not a blanket travel ban - but restrictions designed to eliminate travel as far as possible by virtue of returning quarantine / Foreign Office advice etc

Scare tactics as usual.

@Porcupineinwaiting

No I know you don't wear a mask in the street but you do in a B&Q warehouse for example where the space can hardly be described as 'enclosed'.
But the point is the elderly / infirm who were so badly affected in March & April were confined in hospital wards or Nursing Home sitting rooms where returning hospital patients were sent. Very little was transmitted in the wider world with such catastrophic results. But now all the restrictions have extended to that 'wider world'.

[quote Noextremes2017]@latticechaos

Ok not a blanket travel ban - but restrictions designed to eliminate travel as far as possible by virtue of returning quarantine / Foreign Office advice etc

Scare tactics as usual.[/quote]
I don't agree with your assessment of measures as being aimed at eliminating travel - I think they are to limit infection. The government has no reason to want to limit travel.

I don't see them as scare tactics.

You come across as a covid denialist, as you don't seem to feel the virus is a risk at all or that any measures are needed.

The government wants us all out spending money - so Covid deaths are down and "flu" deaths are up, beyond the level that would be expected in summer. Care home owners, where some of the deaths will be occurring, have a financial interest in getting new people in, less likely if someone had died of Covid than of flu. It would not be surprising if "flu" deaths were overstated and Covid deaths understated. The government has just removed a lot of Covid deaths from their headline figures because they took place more than 28 days after a positive test, but people do quite often die from Covid-19 after more than 28 days.

If all restrictions are removed younger people can get on with their lives - including the unemployment that will occur if older people are not out and about spending money.

Lockdown was about ensuring people of working age could still get treatment, restrictions are about encouraging older people out to spend money.

1 person was admitted to hospital for Covid in the whole of north east and Yorkshire on the 8th August.

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/Covid-Publication-13-08-2020.xlsx

@alreadytaken I had not thought of it like that. So in order for the older wealthy people to get out they need to feel safe. Makes sense. Lack of transparency from government of course.

Alex50 are there still restrictions up there?

@latticechaos

No - I am a Covid REALIST. Covid is going nowhere but we need to get back to some kind of normality.
Funny how other European countries seem to be managing a lot better - maybe they don’t have a Government / media intent on promoting ‘Coronaphobia’?

I’ll take it as a given that you don’t agree.

@alreadytaken

Funny - I thought lockdown was all about protecting a badly prepared, under funded, under staffed NHS ....,,,,,

Funny how other European countries seem to be managing a lot better - maybe they don’t have a Government / media intent on promoting ‘Coronaphobia’?

Which countries?? They are increasing measures in France Spain Italy Greece Netherlands Belgium Malta...

And sorry forgot to add for coronarealist and for coronaphobia

Funny how other European countries seem to be managing a lot better

Where have you got this idea from?

@Treesofwood no additional restrictions in the NE, it’s the NW that’s on the extended lockdown.

@Derbygerbil
@latticechaos

Just a few random examples:

1 There has been plenty of press coverage since June about how other countries have been getting their kids back to school (and not just 2 year classes. Read some of the hysteria in the British press (or on here) about the limited return we had and the plans for September and you wouldn't think we were talking about the same thing.

2 Recent survey quoted in the financial press - 83% of office workers have returned to their desks in France - here 30-35%.

3 Cruises banned (at least until October here - moving target). Just resumed from Italy.

4 UK economy hardest hit of all major European economies in April to June quarter due to length and severity of lockdown.

And I'll give you a good example of the media b/s we are subjected to. How about the 'Britons flee France' headlines? You'd think they were were abandoning their possessions and swimming out to the departing ferries in the harbour! In fact a relatively small number curtailed their holidays early because they couldn't afford the economic consequences of Johnsons arbitrary quarantine decision.
But a headline 'Some holidaymakers decide to return early' just does not cut it does it!

Anyhow we'll have to agree to disagree. You are in one camp; I am in another; and no doubt we both feel we have a majority.

1. those countries sending schools back had got their infection rates down much lower than we had before they went back. They also usually have a much better test and trace system than we do, are not cramming 30 pupils into a class room and are often making bugger adjustments than we are in trying to prevent spread in schools.

2. cruises - Norway already did this. The first cruise managed to get covid circulating on board pretty quickly and then they managed to let a whole bunch of covid +ve passengers disembark and had to round them up and isolate them.

3. the UK didn’t lock down as hard as other European countries. While we eventually started quarantining people travelling from some countries other countries had restricted entry much earlier. Their lockdown rules were enforced rather than undermined. And generally they were applied at an earlier point in their epidemic. They also didn’t male the mistake of abandoning testing early and then having to reintroduce it. All of this will have lead to shorter lockdowns which will have had less of an effect on the economy. The UK economy was also starting on a downturn in the 1st quarter due to the small issue of brexit.

Yes, other countries have dealt with it better than we have but that isn’t due to media scaremongering it’s due to our government making a number of critical errors early on. Other countries have made errors too, but we seem to be excelling in watching what’s happened elsewhere and ignoring it.

The Britons fleeing France thing was just a dead cat to get us all to stop talking about A levels anyway.