Deaths from Covid

[Scoobos]

Though the excess deaths is misleading when it doesn't include those dying from the flu, which would have been a big factor over winter, as those case numbers have either vanished (can't catch flu if managing to avoid catching covid) or are now included in covid death stats.

It's artificial and therefore nonsense. e.g. many of those that would have been run over by a bus are now still alive due to having stayed at home that day while in lockdown. So plenty of people have survived because of covid.

i.e. statistics are for numpties trying to prove something and they're always wrong.

This is very very true - I've heard from several front line doctors that overall injuries are down, because of lockdown - people are not going out on quadbikes or getting drunk in town on a Saturday night.

[Hobosapien]

This is very very true - I've heard from several front line doctors that overall injuries are down, because of lockdown - people are not going out on quadbikes or getting drunk in town on a Saturday night.

Yep, while those doing ICU work are being hammered mentally and physically trying to cope with covid patients, those in A&E are twiddling their thumbs compared to normal times, especially at weekend when all the drunk 'bird or fight' mob are no longer on the loose.

Swings and roundabouts.

Something else causing fewer injuries I imagine.

[d000hg]

The excess death figure is the best to use IMHO.

The reason being as there will be people dying from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, car crashes etc who if it wasn't for the NHS being overrun with Covid patients would have survived. So in an odd way their deaths are linked to Covid even though they probably didn't have it.

That's great statistically to measure the impact of Covid, but it doesn't give us information about the disease itself. Both are valuable but in different ways.

Since there are such a lot of people dying from Covid, then I'd suggest all these other discussion points are going to be pretty minimal statistically. How many are dying from Covid... at least a thousand a day right now; how many are dying per day from other things specifically due to an overstretched NHS... 10?

[Scoobos]

Yep, while those doing ICU work are being hammered mentally and physically trying to cope with covid patients, those in A&E are twiddling their thumbs compared to normal times, especially at weekend when all the drunk 'bird or fight' mob are no longer on the loose.

Swings and roundabouts.

Something else causing fewer injuries I imagine.

That's not what I'm seeing in my region, believe me, no one is twiddling thumbs. Everyone is repurposed. My trauma mate is working the morgue in a totally different region at the moment.

[SimonMac]

I've been pondering this for a while - why is the UK death rate so much higher than other countries

Is our Health Service really that much worse than other European countries
'
Are we reporting differently to others?

We are reporting any deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID test, not sure if other countries are using such a broad definition.

[eek]

We are reporting any deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID test, not sure if other countries are using such a broad definition.

No one else is. Ages ago we pointed out that the only internationally comparable figure would be excess deaths and even that figure isn't available from a lot of countries.

[Scoobos]

I think the truth is , we won't know for years . There's so many variables.

It's highly likely that it's power is diminished in anywhere other than temperate zones, looking at the world map . South Africa is perhaps the only anomoly there, or countries with high human traffic from temperate zones.

But one thing I am sure of, after spending this afternoon struggling to hold back tears of rage, is that our response has been absolutely awful and I'm shocked to the core that people have defended it. We've had a decade of year on year economic growth you know. Literally killed thousands for "christmas day" because it would be inhuman not to (yet we cancelled eid, weddings, funerals, deathbeds etc) .

Degraded Covid as a disease of high consequence, in order to have our guys in absolutely NOT appropriate PPE (right now, in Red zones, the NHS is still operating with people using N95 masks and calling the 1 or 2 people PER 20 patients that have proper PPE to do the close work, when needed.

Literally billions pushed to SERCO et al, to do a worse job setting up from scratch, than using the existing systems and people.


How can anyone defend this? I think we've had high consequence myself, dont you?
High consequence infectious diseases (HCID) - GOV.UK

God, I've got to stop, I'm going to send myself over a bridge at this rate.

[d000hg]

No one else is. Ages ago we pointed out that the only internationally comparable figure would be excess deaths and even that figure isn't available from a lot of countries.

Excess deaths will surely only work for a year? In the second year won't the deaths in the previous year start to distort things as it 'wraps around'? Or does it not work that way?

[eek]

Excess deaths will surely only work for a year? In the second year won't the deaths in the previous year start to distort things as it 'wraps around'? Or does it not work that way?

Excess deaths could still be compared with 2019 and 2018 figures...

[AtW]

Boris saved Xmas and whatever horse racing event was in March 2020. that’s why deaths are higher.