Italy has overtaken us on the death statistics :-(

[notagainmummy]

And eastern european countries are even worse hit. All so sad.

I believe it is the so called 'Kent variant' which ripped through the UK causing our second wave, is responsible. This pandemic is horrendous.
www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

@HSHorror

I wouldnt say that. There has been a lot of q jumping and corruption Gp giving him and wife both doses Nhs staff sharing multiple links Gp giving their mates the spares The unpaid carers being abused. And the wrongs of being down to 20yo while 45+ wait extra weeks. The asthmatics being removed from the list (but mild asthma being done in some areas)

Whatever they're doing it is working. Something like 98% of over 60s have been vaccinated, so even with the very small minority of queue jumpers and so on, the vaccine programme has been very effective.

I couldn't care less about anyone getting a "spare" jab, presuming that they actually are going spare.

@TimmyOnTheBrain

Yes, its awful, but I've always thought figures would level out across countries no matter what approach we take. As for believing that China has 3 deaths per million population and India has 133, what a joke!

I think the opposite has happened. Just compare New Zealand and Brazil.

Across Europe (with the possible exception of Sweden) approaches have not differed that much with most countries using a reactive approach with lockdowns and restrictions following a rise in cases.

On the numbers the only reliable measure is excess mortality (figures per population) are misleading and even then differences in the way the data is collated will impact this.

This may be relevant www.politico.eu/article/italy-mafia-coronavirus-vaccination-mob-infiltrated/

New Zealand is miles away from anywhere, with a population less than London's.

New Zealand is miles away from anywhere, with a population less than London's.

Oh, so that means if no precautions had been taken covid wouldn't have run rife through the population? If NZ wasn't quarantining everyone who arrives they would be in the same predicament as other countries as each day people are arriving with the virus.

@UmbilicusProfundus

And France now has 100,000s more cases than the UK now but far fewer deaths. Has there been any clear evidence recently as to why this is the case? Older population in UK, or the disastrous care home situation (inc discharging people from hospital back to their homes whilst still covid positive)?

Obesity/poor health

@UmbilicusProfundus

And France now has 100,000s more cases than the UK now but far fewer deaths. Has there been any clear evidence recently as to why this is the case? Older population in UK, or the disastrous care home situation (inc discharging people from hospital back to their homes whilst still covid positive)?

If you're referring to the worldometers data, then that ONLY includes the official government figures.

In the UK we barely tested anyone during the first wave, so the number for our TOTAL infections is only about 60% of what it SHOULD have been.

There's a lot of other issues with the worldometers data that mean you cannot really compare ANY data on there - you can only use it to follow trends within a given country because each country measures each metric differently.

@TimmyOnTheBrain

Yes, its awful, but I've always thought figures would level out across countries no matter what approach we take. As for believing that China has 3 deaths per million population and India has 133, what a joke!

China limited the virus to a small area and apart from the odd cases escaping immigration quarantine since then, like NZ and Oz, the country has been covid free.

I'm in Puglia.
It's a shambles because of the Pontius Pilate fat twat regional governor who literally will not make ANY decision, except to refuse to implement government guidelines.
Our kids have now been online for 13 months. Not because the SCHOOLS aren't safe, but because the stupid twat didn't factor in that they'd need more school buses.
My 89 and 91 year old in-laws were supposed to be vaccinated at home. My MIL is housebound anyway. On the day they were supposed to be vaccinated, (10 days ago) the local authorities changed their policy and you had to go to the nearest Vax centre to be done. My FIL went, but nobody could take MIL in the car, so she missed her slot.
In the meantime FB tells me my housewife SIL aged 49 had her vaccine last week. She is 100% one of those statistics who have "wangled" a vaccine.
There are currently 200 (approx) live cases in my town (pop 65,000) but we're in a red zone because of low % of vaccinations being done.
Thanks for the article! That's my lesson with my fifth years sorted for tomorrow! (Online of course! Despite all teachers being vaccinated a month ago)

@eaglejulesk

New Zealand is miles away from anywhere, with a population less than London's.

Oh, so that means if no precautions had been taken covid wouldn't have run rife through the population? If NZ wasn't quarantining everyone who arrives they would be in the same predicament as other countries as each day people are arriving with the virus.

No. But it does mean it was much easier to take precautions, and to police them.
For example, there are no big cities where millions of people live and work in very close proximity.
It's not a hub for international trade and tourism either.

I'm so depressed with the whole thing, and with the multiple new variants despair we will ever be normal again.

China limited the virus to a small area and apart from the odd cases escaping immigration quarantine since then.... the country has been covid free

Dunno if these events count as "odd cases". They seem rather frequent to be called "odd" but it is a country of 1.2 billion I suppose.

2 April 2021: 60 cases in Ruili

January 2021, 273 covid cases in Jilin

January 2021, "spiral of cases" in Hebei province that surrounds Beijing, probably same events that quarantine camp was constructed for and caused 22 million people to go into Lockdown.

Separate January 2021 outbreak in Qingdao

Seems pretty active situation in 2021 so far. Very different from comparison countries.

We had an awful second wave.

Used to beat our government with a stick because we had the highest death rate in Europe.

They kept saying you need to wait until the end.

I really really hope our government doesn't use the fact about 6 European countries now have a higher death rate than us as propaganda (despite our media using it as a stick to beat them)

This is people's lives and I hate death rate being used as a competitive "we're doing better/ worse than you" tool.

I hope worldwide we get a grip of this soon.

Thanks @bookworm1632 that’s a fair point about being cautious interpreting the worldometer data. I’d be surprised if loads of countries including France haven’t underestimated cases though, as no one was testing that much in the beginning. I saw Mexico announced a huge number of additional deaths the other day that hasn’t been added to the site. The id probably better international dashboards somewhere - think I saw a John Hopkins one somewhere which might be more reliable.

@MrsFin

Puglia is perhaps the most vivid example of the dysfunctional vaccination rollout that has plagued the EU’s third-largest economy

If there's one thing the U.K. is good at, it's queuing, and being fair. Even, it seems, virtual queuing.

Yep, when I got my phone call from my GP, I asked them to check that it wasn't a mistake, I wasn't expecting one so soon. I'd have been embarrassed if I'd taken one ahead of someone in a higher group but it turned out that they deemed me to be Group 6.

@eaglejulesk

New Zealand is miles away from anywhere, with a population less than London's.

Oh, so that means if no precautions had been taken covid wouldn't have run rife through the population? If NZ wasn't quarantining everyone who arrives they would be in the same predicament as other countries as each day people are arriving with the virus.

The point is that NZ is an outlier in every sense of the word. You simply cannot make comparisons between it and one of the world's most connected countries.

This isn’t going to help

About 80% of Sicilians are refusing to be inoculated against Covid-19 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Sicily’s Governor said on Sunday.

Nello Musumeci said:

Every 100 people, 80 say ‘no’ to the Oxford Vaccine.

I understand people are worried, but they have to trust scientists who are saying it is more dangerous not to get vaccinated than to be vaccinated.

@UmbilicusProfundus

Thanks *@bookworm1632* that’s a fair point about being cautious interpreting the worldometer data. I’d be surprised if loads of countries including France haven’t underestimated cases though, as no one was testing that much in the beginning. I saw Mexico announced a huge number of additional deaths the other day that hasn’t been added to the site. The id probably better international dashboards somewhere - think I saw a John Hopkins one somewhere which might be more reliable.

Excess mortality is the better way to compare www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/comparisonsofallcausemortalitybetweeneuropeancountriesandregions/2020

@Cornettoninja - they have. Their population is smaller than ours so the measure is of deaths per 1 million of population & they are now ahead of us.

@itsgettingwierd

We had an awful second wave.

Used to beat our government with a stick because we had the highest death rate in Europe.

They kept saying you need to wait until the end.

I really really hope our government doesn't use the fact about 6 European countries now have a higher death rate than us as propaganda (despite our media using it as a stick to beat them)

This is people's lives and I hate death rate being used as a competitive "we're doing better/ worse than you" tool.

I hope worldwide we get a grip of this soon.

Well said

@DdraigGoch that’s fine for countries that record every death some countries don’t. India for example, so it’s very hard to compare access deaths

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28228177

It's not a competition

No it’s not, you can’t compare countries, as deaths are not reported the same in other countries. To say the UK has had one of the highest deaths is very misleading.

For what it's worth, unlike in most other countries, excess mortality in France in 2020 roughly tallied with recorded covid deaths, suggesting that the system there is relatively more accurate than elsewhere, although obviously not perfect.

If you are a close contact of a confirmed case, you are instructed to take two tests regardless of whether you have symptoms. That must catch a large number of asymptomatic cases that wouldn't be recorded in the UK. It's also very easy now to get a test for any reason.

Finally, hospitalisation rates relative to cases have consistently been higher than in the UK, suggesting that maybe serious cases are treated sooner.

Care homes, on the other hand, were a complete disaster during the first wave.