catinstalbans
Well-known member
Apparently Germany are too organised and successful a nation to compare ourselves to, after all who would have thought when Matt Hancock stood up in Parliament on 11 February and said that the UK and the NHS was well prepared that we might need to carry out a few tests to see who has got the virus, or that nurses and doctors might need PPE.
So if Germany is too good to compare ourselves to, then perhaps our closest neighbour Ireland might be a more realistic comparison.
We started with almost the same number of CCU beds, similarly underfunded health systems and a culturally and historically linked population.
While the UK has had just under 10,000 deaths the Irish have had less than 400. Of course the population of the UK is so much greater so let's look at deaths per 100,000 people
UK 14.81
Ireland 6.5
Why the difference?
Ireland locked down much earlier, no St Patrick's day celebrations in the pubs, schools were closed, and lockdown effectively began on March 13.
Meanwhile Cheltenham went ahead, Boris had (officially) no plans to close
schools, pubs and restaurants or to ban major sporting events.
According to figures this one week delay can lead to 18 less deaths per asymptomatic infected person carrying the infection around in the open for that extra week. That's 18 parents, grandparents, husbands, wives and in rare cases children lost unnecessarily due to complacency and negligence.
Also compared to Ireland, the UK has tested 4 tests per 1000, Ireland 8.7.
This means that while everyone recognises that the UK is under reporting covid 19 deaths, in comparison this under reporting will be less in Ireland simply because they have carried out more tests.
So with the time lag of this virus someone infected at Cheltenham who went on to have major problems would have been in hospital this week. The people they went on to infect will be dying over the next two weeks. Lives lost because of an ideology that puts money before people, and a national tragedy that could and should have been avoidable.
So if Germany is too good to compare ourselves to, then perhaps our closest neighbour Ireland might be a more realistic comparison.
We started with almost the same number of CCU beds, similarly underfunded health systems and a culturally and historically linked population.
While the UK has had just under 10,000 deaths the Irish have had less than 400. Of course the population of the UK is so much greater so let's look at deaths per 100,000 people
UK 14.81
Ireland 6.5
Why the difference?
Ireland locked down much earlier, no St Patrick's day celebrations in the pubs, schools were closed, and lockdown effectively began on March 13.
Meanwhile Cheltenham went ahead, Boris had (officially) no plans to close
schools, pubs and restaurants or to ban major sporting events.
According to figures this one week delay can lead to 18 less deaths per asymptomatic infected person carrying the infection around in the open for that extra week. That's 18 parents, grandparents, husbands, wives and in rare cases children lost unnecessarily due to complacency and negligence.
Also compared to Ireland, the UK has tested 4 tests per 1000, Ireland 8.7.
This means that while everyone recognises that the UK is under reporting covid 19 deaths, in comparison this under reporting will be less in Ireland simply because they have carried out more tests.
So with the time lag of this virus someone infected at Cheltenham who went on to have major problems would have been in hospital this week. The people they went on to infect will be dying over the next two weeks. Lives lost because of an ideology that puts money before people, and a national tragedy that could and should have been avoidable.