You might think that the main headline today would be that the UK now has the highest death rate in Europe.
But you would be wrong. The big story is that Professor Neil Ferguson has been caught shagging and not from six feet. I may be missing the point here, but who cares?
Nearly 30,000 people in the UK are dead from a virus for which there is no known cure.
What a pity that they are not celebrities, footballers or members of the Royal Family for whom there would be an out-pouring of grief. They are just ordinary people, some of them NHS workers, who, on the whole, remain faceless.
Whilst the PM agrees that it is tragic that they have died, he shows no remorse for his part in the deaths of a good many of them. By refusing to listen to scientists (even now disgraced ones) until it was too late he allowed the virus free rein to infect people in the UK. By failing to provide PPE he is responsible for the deaths of essential workers for whom he has a duty of care.
Speculation is now rife that at the briefing on Sunday Prime Minister Johnson will allow an easing of the lockdown. Many people will breathe a sigh of relief as they are now bored with the whole thing. Although in surveys 80% or more do not want a return to "normal" unless there is a viable vaccine.
In order to encourage workers who have become "addicted" to being on 80% of their pay and forced to stay home, the amount of money paid by the government is set to be reduced from 80% of wages to 60%. The message is clear: if workers don't want to return to work until it is actually safe to do so, then they must be encouraged to do so by being driven into poverty.
| Date | Days since first death |
| 05/05/2020 | 61 |
| Deaths | |
| UK (All deaths) | 29,427 |
| New deaths (official) | 693 |
| Death Rate (hospital deaths) | 15.09 |
| Increase in deaths over previous day (%) | 2.4 |
| Tests carried out UK |
| Total tests carried out | 1,383,842 |
| in last 24 hours | 92,251 |
| How many less than Governments target | 7,749 |
| People tested | 1,015,138 |
| Negative (n/%) | 81 |
| Positive (n/%) | 19 |
| average per day since first death | 16,642 |
| Percent population UK tested | 1.54% |
The most notable figure here, let's put the number of deaths to one side for a moment, is that the number of tests carried out was over 7,000 less than the Government's target.
As I have said before, that target was totally arbitrary and just showed the idiocy of the Government in creating a target they missed. However, most of the media led on the fact that the Government had achieved that arbitrary target on one day. Tom Watson, former Labour Party backstabber, tweeted his congratulations to Matt Hancock on his 'leadership'. They have been rather less effusive as it emerged that they only reached 100,000 by fiddling the figures and including the tests that had been sent out as home testing kits, which may or may not actually produce a result. If we had a press they would be shouting this from the rooftops. If we had a press....
The UK has the largest number of deaths in Europe having surpassed both Italy and Spain. If we had a press this would be treated as a scandal, heads would be demanded, the entire strategy of the Government would be called into question. If we had a press....
INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
| International comparisons |
| | Total deaths | As % of total deaths worldwide | Deaths per 100,000 population |
| Worldwide | 259,449 | | |
| Spain | 25,857 | 9.97 | 55.31 |
| Italy | 29,315 | 11.30 | 48.47 |
| UK | 29,427 | 14.65 | 57.73 |
| England | 26,441 | 13.26 | 47.24 |
| Scotland | 1,576 | 0.79 | 28.98 |
| Wales | 1,023 | 0.51 | 32.59 |
| Northern Ireland | 387 | 0.19 | 20.57 |
| France | 25,531 | 9.84 | 39.13 |
| New Zealand | 21 | 0.44 | 0.44 |
| Sweden | 2,941 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| USA | 72,334 | 27.88 | 21.88 |
| Germany | 6,993 | 2.70 | 8.46 |
| Norway | 215 | 0.00 | 0.44 |
| China | 4633 | 1.79 | 0.32 |
This chart shows that in addition to having the worst stats in Europe, the UK is not performing that well when compared to other countries either. Indeed, having not 'followed the science' as minutes of the SAGE committee now in the public domain show quite clearly, we now have a death rate which is only beaten by the USA, also ruled by a narcissist, but significantly much bigger.
Indeed, in terms of deaths per 100,000 of population the UK at 57.73 is top of the league with only Spain coming close. This is a tragedy. If only we had a press that were moved to make such things headline news. If we had a press....
According to Johnson and his cronies international comparisons can't be made. Convenient, you might think. We love international comparisons when the UK is doing well, but apparently countries being different sizes means you can't compare death rates. There is now a suggestion coming from Government sources that other countries are fiddling their figures and not including, can you believe it, care homes in their daily figures. I wonder where they got that idea. But, we can only work with the stats we have (as we had to when the UK government was clearly fiddling its figures). Perhaps if we had a press an enterprising journalist could examine these claims. If we had a press....
There is a growing debate around whether Sweden's rather more liberal approach to lockdowns has been successful or not.
It is clearly too late to change what has happened this time around, but this article by Nima Khorrami a research associate at the Arctic Institute in Stockholm offers some food for thought.
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