CORONA VIRUS

[RJM]

Two relatives of mine, who "died of cancer", didn't have "cancer" as cause of death in their death certificates, but rather, cardiovascular organ failure. So there's that.

Yes I know that cancer deaths are recorded by the coroner in the way you say. Of course in fact it means that covid deaths should really be recorded as respiratory failure, or whatever?

Germany is 31st for deaths per million (110) on the list of 188 countries. Australia has 8 deaths per million.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
COVID-19 deaths worldwide per one million population as of July 31, 2020, by country
Published by Raynor de Best, Jul 31, 2020
Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 188 countries relative to their population, Belgium had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 31, 2020. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 17.3 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 673,000. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The difficulties of death figures
This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths.

There deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths. This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult.

Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later.

Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?
The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

 

[muhammad_isa]

..Wearing masks does decrease the rate of spreading the disease..

Marginally..
I can think of a lot of other measures that are more effective.
I don't agree with it being mandatory. I don't think that it will work in the UK.

I DO agree with controlling the ports more effectively.
That WILL SIGNIFICANTLY bring down deaths from pandemics.

If China had acted sooner..

 

[RJM]

If no one had ever mentioned it, no one would ever know it happened. That's what I think

 

[RJM]

Selfish politicians echo woke social media influencers, for short-term popularity. It's all about being seen to do the right thing. Imo

 

[RJM]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...mandeered-Britains-Covid-19-crisis-empty.html

Private hospitals commandeered for Britain's Covid-19 crisis at a cost of up to £150million are STILL empty - despite huge backlog of NHS patients needing routine surgery and vital cancer treatment
and routine surgery, medics say.

More than 8,000 private beds in England were bought up by ministers in March at an estimated cost of £2.4million a day, in anticipation of NHS hospitals being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The beds have been under public control for nearly 11 weeks, thought to have cost the taxpayer at least a staggering 150million already, with the figure rising every day.

But the health service's intensive care wards were not overrun during the peak of the pandemic and the majority of the private beds went unused.

Up to a fifth of routine operations on the NHS were also postponed to make way for a surge in virus patients, resulting in tens of thousands of patients enduring delays to treatment.

Private hospitals are now meant to be operating as 'Covid-free hubs' to get back up and running for vulnerable people, including cancer patients.

But a senior consultant said today 'very few' of these patients were being referred to the private hospitals, leaving them almost completely empty ...

etc ...

That was April. What's changed?

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...mandeered-Britains-Covid-19-crisis-empty.html

Private hospitals commandeered for Britain's Covid-19 crisis at a cost of up to £150million are STILL empty - despite huge backlog of NHS patients needing routine surgery and vital cancer treatment
and routine surgery, medics say.

More than 8,000 private beds in England were bought up by ministers in March at an estimated cost of £2.4million a day, in anticipation of NHS hospitals being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The beds have been under public control for nearly 11 weeks, thought to have cost the taxpayer at least a staggering 150million already, with the figure rising every day.

But the health service's intensive care wards were not overrun during the peak of the pandemic and the majority of the private beds went unused.

Up to a fifth of routine operations on the NHS were also postponed to make way for a surge in virus patients, resulting in tens of thousands of patients enduring delays to treatment.

Private hospitals are now meant to be operating as 'Covid-free hubs' to get back up and running for vulnerable people, including cancer patients.

But a senior consultant said today 'very few' of these patients were being referred to the private hospitals, leaving them almost completely empty ...

etc ...

That was April. What's changed?

It's now August.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[RJM]

It's now August.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

Entire new hospitals still unused?

2.5 million cancer patients blocked by covid emergency from receiving urgent treatment?

 

[RJM]

Hundreds of millions of people out of work worldwide.

 

[muhammad_isa]

Entire new hospitals still unused?

2.5 million cancer patients blocked by covid emergency from receiving urgent treatment?

The problem, as I understand it, is that there is a shortage of staff.
It's like the trains. If there is no driver, the train goes nowhere.

 

[Aupmanyav]

It is quite clear that each nation has different population density, climate, general health problems etc. etc.

While I certainly agree to what you have said, I am only admitting India's failure to control the spread of virus and some of the reasons for that. The result is 1,865,947 infections and 39,081 deaths, as of today. We have some 10 million migrant workers from villages. The plan was to keep migrant workers in the places of their work and provide them their necessities. The states ruled by opposition parties instigated the workers to travel on foot for hundreds of miles (since rail and bus services had been stopped) and thereby spreading the infection all over the country.

Sounds like some people are fed up after lockdowns and want to party..

Some people have genuine problem with lock-downs. How long can jobs and business suffer? It has been 4 months and 9 days since the lock-downs started. The rich make only a small percentage of people in India.

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

An announcement in Los Angeles pertaining to coronavirus!

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[RJM]

Welcome to the dark side:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...one-lockdown-la-la-land-says-DR-JOHN-LEE.html

Britain's gone from lockdown to la-la-land! Doctor JOHN LEE says that as the devastation to our health and wealth becomes clear, our leaders are still in a fantasy world, in thrall to dodgy science

“…the grievous wounds we have inflicted upon ourselves with the Covid-19 lockdown are becoming more evident every day.

Britain's economic outlook is dire and job losses are mounting daily. It is clear many of those currently bankrolled by the Government's furlough scheme to lie on the beach, lawn or sofa will soon discover that they have no employment to return to in the autumn.

Meanwhile, disturbing figures reported in the Mail yesterday, reveal how alarm is spreading among doctors and patients at the continued mothballing of sectors of the NHS.

Measures designed to help the health service withstand coronavirus cases served their purpose. But now tens of thousands of people with cancer, heart disease and diabetes find themselves consigned to ever-longer waiting lists, left undiagnosed and untreated.

The damning survey by the Royal College of Physicians showed more than two-thirds of senior doctors and consultants were experiencing delays accessing outpatients' diagnostic tests and procedures.

Typically some 30,000 cases of cancer are diagnosed every month; since lockdown it has been roughly half that. And the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal cancer deaths were almost four times higher than they should have been in June.

What this means in reality is that tens of thousands more people will die of cancer due to counter-measures for a virus that, according to the latest figures, is killing less than a tenth of the number it was at its peak and overall has resulted in a similar number of fatalities to those we'd expect during a bad influenza season.

At the same time, waiting times nationwide for routine and even acute surgery are lengthening alarmingly.

In London alone, those waiting for procedures for more than a year have shot up to almost 20,000 from just 1,154 across England 18 months ago.

We may never know precisely how many people in Britain have died and will die of Covid-19, but we know the death rate globally is very low, between 0.1 and 0.5 per cent of those infected, according to research group Swiss Policy Research.

We know that the majority of deaths occurred in people with pre-existing conditions and we also know that in England, the median age of those who died from Covid is above 80.

Every death is sad but should the country have been brought to such an abrupt halt — with catastrophic consequences?

In the eyes of many in the political and scientific establishment it was necessary. But as I warned on these pages back in May, the Government's eagerness to lockdown amounts to nothing more than the medicine of the madhouse.

There were no demands for a national shutdown in Britain in the winter of 2014/15, when more than 28,000 people died from seasonal flu; or during the Hong Kong flu epidemic of 1968, when a million people died worldwide, some 80,000 of them in Britain.

… Of course, we are much more risk-averse today than in the Sixties, far less willing to accept death as our ultimate destiny or able to have a grown-up public discussion about it …” (article continues)

 

[RJM]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8597555/135-000-face-axe-amid-fear-economic-Armageddon.html

135,000 Britons now face the AXE amid fear of 'economic Armageddon' as day after day the Covid jobs bloodbath takes its devastating toll

The scale of the Covid-19 jobs bloodbath has been laid bare as a Mail audit found 135,000 jobs in Britain are facing the axe.

Analysis of the threat of redundancies since the virus took hold has revealed 230,000 jobs are set to go both here and abroad at more than 100 of Britain's biggest firms …

... Iain Duncan Smith said: 'It's outrageous that people are still being told they shouldn't go back to work. If they don't go back to work, economic Armageddon will hit Britain and with it will come swathes of unemployment leading to even more lives being lost.'

Analysis found that, of large firms that have disclosed figures, 22,500 job cuts are in retail, 18,100 in restaurants, and 21,600 in travel and airlines ...

 

[Thomas]

Speaking of the Dark Side ...

Under emergency provisions, the Govt is entitled to award contracts directly, without offering the contract out to tender, and with none of the usual checks-and-balances reviews necessary to ensure the money is being well spent.

So it has come to light, with the Govt refusing to release details until obliged to do so by a court ruling, that a PPE contract worth £252 million was awarded to Ayanda Capital Limited, a 'family office' owned through a tax haven in Mauritius, with connections to ToTy MP Liz Truss.

It is the largest PPE contract we have seen to date.

It's also the most dodgy and the most delinquent.

After judicial review proceedings the Govt has admitted that the 50 million FFP2 masks purchased from Ayanda Capital (a cost circa £156m-£177m) "will not be used in the NHS" because "there was concern as to whether the[y]… provided an adequate fixing."

They don't. They don't meet the NHS required standard.

So now the Govt must find another use for 50m unsuitable facemasks, or swallow the loss. And the remaining 150 million Type IIR masks purchased from Ayanda Capital also require further testing and have not been released for use in the NHS.

Curiously, it emerges that Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s lawyers have now admitted they planned to enter into that contract with a £100 company set up and wholly owned by MP Liz Truss' adviser Andrew Mills and his wife.

There are now three sets of judicial review proceedings in relation to PPE procurement contracts, one with a pest control company, another with a confectionary company, and the third with Ayanda/Prospermill.

All three companies have personal ties to the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Not one of the contracts has resulted in any PPE yet being released for use in the NHS.

The entirety of the PPE delivered under these three contracts is either untested or has already been found to be unusable.

In digging into the details, investigators have found that companies with a track record of Govt provision who have challenged dubious awards given to companies with dubious tracks records, have been told in no uncertain terms that if they challenge the Govt then they will in future be dropped from the rosta of companies allowed to tender for business ... in short, keep quiet or you will pay the price.

So it's heart-warming to know that while companies and civilians suffer through this COVID crisis, those in power and friends of those in power look to reap handsome rewards ... for them it would seem COVID is just the icing on the Brexit cake as that particular debacle unfolds in the further collapse of what passes for 'British Industry'.

 

[Thomas]

OK RJM, but this is the Daily Mail speaking ...

 

[RJM]

OK RJM, but this is the Daily Mail speaking ...

I understand. Nevertheless. It has become socially unacceptable to even say such things, and so I welcome it

 

[Thomas]

I understand. Nevertheless. It has become socially unacceptable to even say such things, and so I welcome it

OK, but to be fair, the Daily Mail has a particulat reputation.

Every death is sad but should the country have been brought to such an abrupt halt — with catastrophic consequences?

We didn't know at the time how bad things might get.

But as I warned on these pages back in May, the Government's eagerness to lockdown amounts to nothing more than the medicine of the madhouse.

The Government 'eager to lockdown'? Is he serious? Nigh on everyone regards the lockdown as late and half-hearted.

There were no demands for a national shutdown ...

We didn't understand virology then as we do now.

So is he saying the whole world's got it wrong. That we should be like the US or Brazil, in denial, to keep the economy going at any cost?

Of course, we are much more risk-averse today than in the Sixties, far less willing to accept death as our ultimate destiny or able to have a grown-up public discussion about it …” (article continues)

Nah. It's a question of unnecessary death ...

I wish the critique were aimed at the right target. The issue is not the lockdown response, that's a no-brainer.

The issue is the Govt's failure to act decisively and effectively in a timely fashion.

The late reaction, a catch-up to the realisation of a potentially greater catastrophe of 'herd immunity' or 'let it run its course' that Dr Lee proposes, then the drip-feed of half-measures, the incredulity of our European neighbours at our assumption that 'we are Britain' as if that somehow makes us better ...

Until now, when mixed messaging, failures of leadership — Currently our PM is advertising for a 'public speaker' to be his mouthpiece to the media because his masters realise he's crap at the job — and 'under the radar' profiteering have led to businesses large and small having no real idea of where we're going or when...

The world has shown that countries who bit the bullet, acted hard and fast, have now effectively contained the pandemic and are returning to normality. The UK's woeful mismanagement continues to reverberate through the economy.

And now we have billions, that should be channeled into the public sphere, are being discreetly allocated to private companies ... see my #93 above, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Thomas]

I understand. Nevertheless. It has become socially unacceptable to even say such things, and so I welcome it

I welcome any critique of this Government, especially its mis-management of the pandemic.

 

[muhammad_isa]

..The world has shown that countries who bit the bullet, acted hard and fast, have now effectively contained the pandemic and are returning to normality. The UK's woeful mismanagement continues to reverberate through the economy.

Really? Are you sure about that?
It's easy to criticise with hindsight .. they haven't done too bad, imo.
We were told from the beginning, that the lockdown was to "flatten the curve", so
as not to overwhelm the NHS. The UK public overall can "pat themselves on the back".
They achieved the aim.

A country with a large, vibrant, densely populated city like London
was never going to get away with just a few deaths .. chinese tourists were still in large numbers
right up to the point when Italy was overwhelmed. China acted too slow.

..and now the whole world is playing "the mask game" like China and Japan.
They give a false sense of security, imo. We were informed at the outset that masks wouldn't make much difference, during the lockdown.
However, I understand why politicians are so fond of the mask. They have to balance
public health against the economy. That is not easy at all. They need to convince people
to get back out there .. and it is working.
I just hope that it doesn't become permanent.

The only reason why that might happen is if they don't wish to control the ports properly.
..for financial reasons, for example.
We know where SARS type viruses have originated, and need to take measures accordingly.
Masks should not be used "instead of" proper controls at ports.

 

[RJM]

OK, but to be fair, the Daily Mail has a particulat reputation.

So does the Guardian? I prefer the Times, myself -- and Private Eye.

Nah. It's a question of unnecessary death ...

Did you read the part about the 'unecessary deaths' from cancer and heart disease and other distress, due to covid emergency?

So is he saying the whole world's got it wrong. That we should be like the US or Brazil, in denial, to keep the economy going at any cost?

I think it's still debatable. It was seen politically as the correct thing to do. The US and Brazil both have repulsive leaders, but judging deaths per million, the US and Brazil are not highest on the list. I know one is not supposed to say these things ...

My view is that the original lockdown was to flatten the peak to prevent pressure on the health services, to give them a chance to prepare. People were very patient and co-operative. But beyond that it's become mission creep.

There are thousands of jobs being lost, people going out of business, and there are going to be thousands of 'unnecessary deaths' and great distress caused by pushing other medical conditions aside.

It's going on long enough. Things must be allowed to get back to normal now. Imo