Just being curious - what do you think will happen .....

[Workingman]

Ah, it has just been explained, The new number includes (some) care home and other place deaths. This leads to the conclusion that for the past weeks the impact of the virus on the UK has been massively downplayed. We are now third worst in the world and within a few days could overtake Italy in second place.

This looks to have been policy rather than an accounting error and come the future we re going to have to have an open public inquiry into how this whole thing has been handled.

[Suff]

Most countries are not counting non hospital deaths. That is policy. It is only a few which are counting them so you can't compare.

Italy and Spain do not count out of hospital deaths, let alone suspected deaths.

Belgium, with the worst per capita in the EU counts them all.

So it may make a headline for anti government media, but reality is we are just joining the more honest crowd, rather than being the worst in the world.

[cromwell]

The media have taken it upon themselves to "hold the government to account". Which is a fancy way of saying they are going to slag the government off at every possible opportunity.
As far as I remember it is the job of Her Majesty's Opposition to hold the government to account; I thought the media was there to report the news.
Not any more it seems.

[Workingman]

I know what you mean about the media, chaps. I was incandescent with rage when it went after the various governments over such things as the Poll Tax, WMD in Iraq, troops in Afghanistan, the handling of the 2008 financial crisis and its performance(s) during various flooding events. Or was I? Is there a remote possibility that I am only furious with the media when it disagrees with my personal beliefs?

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

[Workingman]

Today the UK will miss its 100,000 a day testing target, but does it really matter?

Was that number scientifically proved to be the right one or was it a nice round number we can all understand picked at random. And after all this time is it still relevant when it is only a snapshot of a person's condition at the time? An hour later and the individual could become infected.

Might it not be better to focus and test, test, test on those most at risk such as doctors, nurses, care workers, drivers, the police etc. and do as many random tests as possible on the wider population? We could then compare and contrast how different groups are getting on.

Just a thought.

[Kaz]

I know what you mean about the media, chaps. I was incandescent with rage when it went after the various governments over such things as the Poll Tax, WMD in Iraq, troops in Afghanistan, the handling of the 2008 financial crisis and its performance(s) during various flooding events. Or was I? Is there a remote possibility that I am only furious with the media when it disagrees with my personal beliefs?

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

Hear, hear!

[Gal2]

Most countries are not counting non hospital deaths. That is policy. It is only a few which are counting them so you can't compare.

Italy and Spain do not count out of hospital deaths, let alone suspected deaths.

Belgium, with the worst per capita in the EU counts them all.

So it may make a headline for anti government media, but reality is we are just joining the more honest crowd, rather than being the worst in the world.

That's actually made me feel a bit better about the figures, I didn't know not all countries were using all the data.

[Workingman]

Gal, it is true that all countries are not all using the same spreadsheet, so it is hard to compare them - like for like. Believe me, I have tried.

But whichever one is used or how the data are analysed and presented the UK would still be in the top two to five. The top five are all above the 25,000 mark, the next grouping of ten are all below the 8,000 mark.

We are not in a good place no matter how the numbers are collected or presented.

Prioritise: Look after yourself.

[TheOstrich]

Surely, the only statistic worth comparing is deaths per head of population?

[Suff]

It is true that we will be in the top 5. But we are in no way the worst and we are not heading for 100,000 deaths at this time. No matter what the press would like people to believe.

I read this gibberish with resigned fortitude.

Germany would have you belive that it is all about the testing. However it is equally likely that the German health system, heavily dominated by private health, strives very hard to identify underlying health issues early and treat or resolve them, allied to a population which is far more compliant and far less mobile than the UK.

Scholars and specialists in epidemiology will be studying this one for decades.