Poor health made UK worse

[Orangeblossom7777]

Dame Sally Davies on poor health in the UK and covid.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55134496

Same with America, sadly.

I think its true but it's not just weight. Obviously helping people survive Who are genetically predisposed to say asthma mean that if it's genetic the next generation have it too in likely increasing numbers.
But also we have low vit d levels- affected by time indoors/latitude/weight etc.
Also as with covid you can see how the rich and government are happy for the poor to spend all their money on food (and clothes etc) economy before health.
Life is pretty stressful especially having kids and jobs etc. Ever raising targets always work harder and faster.

Yes, and it's strongly linked to poverty and poor housing. There were some reports out earlier on in the pandemic. About how bad housing impacts health. Bad housing quite literally kills.

It's also highlighted the issues with the NHS. I won't hold my breath, but I'd love to see us turn to a German or Australian healthcare model after all this is over.

Massively linked to inequality.

Just telling people to eat better isn't the answer, particularly as given some of the decisions we've made as a country are likely to make inequality much worse.

Totally agree. A society where eating and drinking unhealthily is constantly encouraged and bike riding and other forms of safe, free, low cost exercise are not invested in and people are working all hours in the gig/care economy to pay for poor often hugely expensive housing is a recipe for this disaster.

You can link it to unhappiness as well. Unhappy people can medicate with anti-depressants etc (can cause weight issues) or self-medicate with binge drinking or binge eating.

We've changed to a service economy as well. What are two of the main things that are serviced? Food and (alcoholic) drink.

Austerity years didn’t help with cuts to healthcare and other public services. Add that to job insecurity, the universal credit fiasco, and the lack of decent affordable housing and it’s not surprising.
It’s a bloody disgrace.

She's right. People are mostly sedentary and eat a bit too much.

Hi all, at risk of being a lone dissenting voice I think this is BS. We have elected leaders who were supposed to act appropriately at when the novel virus emerged and keep us safe, i.e. follow the protocols that had been created for this exact scenario, at significant cost to the UK taxpayer:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-pandemic-preparedness/uk-pandemic-preparedness

It's a very cynical and shitty PR strategy that now that the virus is endemic in every part of the UK, lots of Tory supporters can come out and blame individuals - for their lack of health, for not following the rules, etc etc. But it's not right or fair to do this.

My sister lives in Brunei where there is NO covid. No masks, no lockdowns, no rules - zero risk. Same in NZ, same in areas of Aus where they have succeeded with elimination strategies. Singapore, Taiwan etc.
These countries have governments (of all stripes) that followed their Pandemic plans - closed the borders; created government funded quarantines with police enforcement for those that HAD to enter; had track and trace working effectively in days/weeks. They also made it easy for people to comply - we had friends quarantining in Singapore with meals delivered to them 3x daily so thy didn't have any need to leave...

Compare this to our inept lot, who were bibbling about their (based on non-existent evidence) "herd immunity" strategy MONTHS into the crisis, without having acquired sufficient tests for all the symptomatic people who hadn't 'recently travelled to China'.

There is only one reason we've had such terrible outcomes, and it's not obesity or vitamin D or pesky ravers breaking the rules. It's GOVERNMENT FAILURE and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't been paying attention.

[Also just to say that the economies of the countries with zero Covid are doing pretty well too - where life is going on as normal, no one has been fired and the restaurants are all safely open! So the other big lie to watch out for is that we had to 'either' save the economy or save Grandma/lives. The choice was always to save both or save neither, and we have got the worst of both worlds here...]

(Rant over - sorry! :) )

@WoolyMammoth55 Excellent post. Thank you

That's a very good post @WoolyMammoth55

The health inequality has made things worse (and that's also the fault of governments, not the public), but definitely it's our almost criminally negligent and incompetent approach to the pandemic that is the real reason for the mess we're now in. Afterall, Germany has nearly as high obesity rates as us but far fewer Covid deaths.

She's right. People are mostly sedentary and eat a bit too much

Good plan to lock everyone indoors and only allow food shops open then

I’m not defending the government at all but...

At no point, as far as I am aware, were we all ‘locked indoors’ and as for food shops staying open, what would you suggest as an alternative?

The UK is fairly unhealthy as a nation and I would argue that it’s due to lifestyle rather than the NHS, but that’s only part of the equation with the covid mortality rate...age and population density also play a part. And you can’t compare the approach of nations such as Brunei and NZ to the UK, they are far too different. European comparisons are more justified.

Totally agree with moving to German system of healthcare btw...the NHS in its current form is unsustainable and has been for years

@sirfredfredgeorge

She's right. People are mostly sedentary and eat a bit too much

Good plan to lock everyone indoors and only allow food shops open then

People were never locked indoors.

Excellent post @WoolyMammoth55

The BBC news report tonight Poverty and Covid moved me to tears; what desperately sad lives people are living. When the vicar broke down at the end of the report as he tried to hold the community together was so sad. I hope the Government level up the funding to these communities.

@Redbirds it was awful. There was no SD/masks - I kept thinking this could get worse for you, please try and protect yourselves. The lady who was 55 looked so much older, or was shocking tbh

Thank you so much @WoolyMammoth55 for an excellent articulate and accurate post. These facts rise above all the bluster and flannel that we in the UK have been fed since February.

@WoolyMammoth55 totally agree.

Well said @WoolyMammoth55. It didn't need to have been this way.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-55133081

Depressing

I think it's partly our class system. We have a 'ruling' class of private school educated/ good uni educated people who get all the professional roles and can afford to do the same for the DCs. Then we have an underclass dependent on the gov to keep them housed and fed with top ups to pay and benefits.
This reduces autonomy and confidence of the lower class, these are the ones becoming ill. Of course there are many in between these two but there seems to be less evidence of a poor, dependent underclass in other European countries.
It's society here that is the problem, not just the present Gov. It's every Gov which went before too.

Particularly Scotland

I actually see it as a disease of poor diet