Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Average age of coronavirus fatalities

253 replies

SlugsTrout · 27/03/2021 13:53

www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/averageageofthosewhohaddiedwithcovid19

That is all.

OP posts:
TheGoodEnoughWife · 27/03/2021 14:50

Does it occur to you how many younger people would have died if there wasn't hospital care for them?

We locked down as to not overwhelm the NHS. Everyone that needed treatment received treatment.

What if the beds weren't available?

(This is just another side. I completely agree with others that old people are people too!)

Mimilamore · 27/03/2021 14:53

@trunumber

What IS your point? We know, we're not stupid, everyone knows it's mostly the elderly that died.

But you know what - one of those was was my 80 year old FIL. And he wasn't supposed to die yet. And he spent all fucking year shielding so he would have to chance to see his grandson again but he caught it at hospital appointment and was dead in 3 days of a positive test.
He was living independently and had only stopped work a few months before.
We miss him, my son misses him. He mattered.

This....
Username198 · 27/03/2021 14:55

How about the younger people who have died due to cancer treatment being withheld? Why don’t their lives matter in all this? No one has said older people don’t matter but shutting down the nhs to everything but covid was a disgrace and lockdown has cost lives too.

notrub · 27/03/2021 14:58

@bumbleymummy

We are vaccinating people so the virus doesn't mutate in to a more dangerous form.

We were vaccinating people to reduce the likelihood of them becoming seriously ill/dying. That was why we prioritised certain groups. This ‘prevent mutant strains’ idea is relatively new goalpost that makes little sense when we have millions of unvaccinated children/younger people in the U.K. and millions unvaccinated around the world. Let’s just stick with the original idea and learn to live with the inevitability of a virus mutating.

Ooh look - the resident anti-vax pseuoscientist is back.
Fridget · 27/03/2021 14:59

@Username198

How about the younger people who have died due to cancer treatment being withheld? Why don’t their lives matter in all this? No one has said older people don’t matter but shutting down the nhs to everything but covid was a disgrace and lockdown has cost lives too.
This is a valid point (except a lot of cancer treatment was stopped to make way for covid patients, not to lockdown as such). It is fair to have a conversation about whether the lives lost to lockdown, now and more pertinently in the future, is proportionate (along with all the other horrors of lockdown). It is fine to take age into abound as part of the QALYS assessment.

What isn’t fine is to imply that if people are elderly we should just let them die of covid.

lizardosis · 27/03/2021 15:00

What I don't understand is that why they didn't tell all the over 70 to stay at home. In my home country they did and majority of people in hospital were middle aged.

notrub · 27/03/2021 15:01

@Username198

How about the younger people who have died due to cancer treatment being withheld? Why don’t their lives matter in all this? No one has said older people don’t matter but shutting down the nhs to everything but covid was a disgrace and lockdown has cost lives too.
Err - they didn't shut down the NHS

Lockdown didn't stop people receiving routine healthcare. Covid did. There are only so many doctors, nurses and beds and unfortunately most of their effort has gone on treating covid patients this last year.

If the virus was allowed to spread more widely, there'd be even less resources available to treat non-covid patients.

I wonder if you simply created a mumsnet account in order to spread your ridiculous covid-denialism?

Sirzy · 27/03/2021 15:01

@Username198

How about the younger people who have died due to cancer treatment being withheld? Why don’t their lives matter in all this? No one has said older people don’t matter but shutting down the nhs to everything but covid was a disgrace and lockdown has cost lives too.
And if the NHS had become even more overwhelmed how do you think it would have coped with providing treatment?

Delays in treatment are due to the virus. The more the virus is causing people to be hospitalised then the less they are going to be able to treat other things.

notrub · 27/03/2021 15:05

@lizardosis

What I don't understand is that why they didn't tell all the over 70 to stay at home. In my home country they did and majority of people in hospital were middle aged.
Well they did, but it's not as simple as that is it?

If you're white, middle-class you may live alone. Many people don't have that privilege. MANY families have been trapped in the position of having elderly, vulnerable people in the house but HAVING to go to work - why do you think it's being called a disease of the poor?

Even for people who live alone - still need to get food in. Still need routine healthcare etc etc.

DIshedUp · 27/03/2021 15:06

We should also look at the age of people who's lives have been saved, the age of people admitted to hospitals and survived

The people who were hospitalised and survived are people whos lives were saved by lockdown. They are the people who were able to access hospital treatments because there were beds, who would have died had we not locked down

We should also look at the age of successful cancer surgeries, admissions to hospital for things like diabetes or car accidents, sepsis etc. Anyone who has been admitted to hospital with reasonably life threatening condition, received successful treatment and been discharged. These are lives that again were saved by lockeown.

Username198 · 27/03/2021 15:10

@notrub Er where exactly did I say covid wasn’t real? But when the NHS has been chronically underfunded for the last 10 years there are hard decisions to make about who to treat and save and why is a covid patient more important than anyone else? In an ideal world we’d be able to treat everyone but ask yourself if there was a burning building with 2 people in (one 21 and one 81) and you only had time to get one out who do you pick? I’m probably biased because my 40 year old friend’s previously treatable cancer is now terminal after having his treatment cancelled but hey you resort to name calling.

DIshedUp · 27/03/2021 15:10

The NHS was only 'shut down' because it didn't have capacity.

There were not the staff or beds to treat the routine care. Had we not locked down there would quite obviously still have not been the staff or beds to treat these people, it would have been incredibly unsafe for a vunerable person to come to hospital. Theres no way you could have had active cancer treatments going on with 1000s of covid patients

I suppose we could have closed hospitals to covid patients to keep the NHS running. As in actively turning away people who were dying to ensure we had general beds for non covid patients

Username198 · 27/03/2021 15:11

@DIshedUp Well it should have had capacity and I don’t understand why people aren’t more angry that it didn’t

bumbleymummy · 27/03/2021 15:12

@notrub

“We were vaccinating people to reduce the likelihood of them becoming seriously ill/dying. That was why we prioritised certain groups.”

Yep. Such an ‘anti-vaxx’ sentiment there Grin

FlibbertyGiblets · 27/03/2021 15:12

Can I say here please that not all cancer treatments halted in March last year. Some carried on, with adjustments.

Purpleapplepeach · 27/03/2021 15:15

The U.K. is one of very few places where people seem to decrease in ‘worth’ as they age.
Whereas in other places the elderly are celebrated and protected and sought out for their wisdom and experience. As if each year gained on earth makes them more cherished but here it’s like once you hit 60 it’s downhill you decrease in worth and things ‘aren’t worth it’ and it seems so sad that a long life and everything that comes with it can be so easily dismissed in a few words ‘that is all’

DIshedUp · 27/03/2021 15:18

@username198 But it didn't. So they didn't really have a choice, apart from actively turning away dying people from hospital.

In the hospitals I worked in cancer treatment did carry on bar a couple of weeks where surgeries were stopped because there were no itu beds.

The NHS has been underfunded for years. Thats a completely separate issue to locking down the country. I think many people have been angry for years about NHS underfunding

Carycy · 27/03/2021 15:19

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

namechangefail2020 · 27/03/2021 15:21

Why do people say shit like this. My Dad is 80 you heartless piece of...

chaosrabbitland · 27/03/2021 15:21

@Username198

How about the younger people who have died due to cancer treatment being withheld? Why don’t their lives matter in all this? No one has said older people don’t matter but shutting down the nhs to everything but covid was a disgrace and lockdown has cost lives too.
yep . and the ones who have killed themselves , and the ones who have no jobs , huge money problems , but as soon as we talk about covid and was it worth the huge sacifice to the economy and country in general everybody starts getting all worked up about ageism , and i think the farce of lockdowns will continue the minute cases rise again once we are out of lockdown as well , except this time im wondering what the excuse will be as the vunerable are now vaccinated
notrub · 27/03/2021 15:22

if there was a burning building with 2 people in (one 21 and one 81) and you only had time to get one out who do you pick

That's exactly what was going through the minds of many doctors throughout the last year, indeed plans were drawn up on who to treat, who to let die should resources get to that point and some hospitals came very close to closing their doors to people. As it stands we managed by in some cases shipping patients hundreds of miles to a hospital with capacity - and that's DESPITE lockdown!

I'm sorry for your friend and you are right to be angry about that, but your anger should be directed at the government for not putting restrictions in place SOONER - lockdown SAVED lives, but if SAGE had been awake at the start and we'd implemented border restrictions last February, coupled with other limited measures targeted against any cases that snuck in, we'd never have needed lockdown, the NHS would never have been stressed and life would have been largely normal for most of us.

cryh · 27/03/2021 15:26

Yes, what is your point? That we should have just left them to die in the street and not bothered treating them, or that we shouldn't have locked down and had more hospitalisations so the NHS was overrun for the rest of the year, or just that we shouldn't feel sad because they are older?

Everyone knew the age profile anyway, this is not new information.

Username198 · 27/03/2021 15:27

@notrub I am absolutely angry at the government. Lockdown the pubs and restaurants but locking down the hospitals unless you have covid? No that’s not ok.

Username198 · 27/03/2021 15:29

@notrub And hospitals did close their doors patients that’s my point. I don’t understand why one illness was prioritised over every other illness.

x2boys · 27/03/2021 15:30

How old are you @dividedwefail? I'm guessing your no where near 80, both my parents are 79, they don't want to die yet ,I don't want them to die ,and neither do their Grandchildren,you don't get to speak for all old people