Re: Covid: 2020 saw most excess deaths since World War Two
Why the 100,000 toll is so bad (part of a much longer article)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55757790
More than
100,000 people in the UK have died from a virus, that, this time last year, felt like a far-off foreign threat. How did we come to be one of the countries with the worst death tolls?
There is no quick answer to that question, and there is sure to be a long and detailed public inquiry once the pandemic is over. But there are plenty of clues that, when pieced together, help build a picture of
why the UK has reached this devastating number.
Some will point a finger at the government - its decision to lock-down later than much of western Europe, the stuttering start to its test-and-trace network, the lack of protection afforded to care home residents.
Others will spotlight deeper rooted problems with British society - its poor state of public health, with high levels of obesity, for example.
Others, still, will note that some of the UK's great strengths - its position as a vibrant hub for international air travel, for example; its ethnically diverse and densely packed urban populations - exposed its vulnerability to a virus that spreads effortlessly in the close air between people.
In some people's eyes, the UK's island status might have helped it. Other island nations such as New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan managed to stop the virus getting a foothold and deaths have been kept to a minimum - Australia has seen fewer deaths throughout the pandemic than the UK is recording every day on average.
- All introduced strict border restrictions immediately and lockdowns to contain the virus before it had spread. The UK did not.
- It was not until June that quarantine rules were introduced for all arrivals and even then travel corridors were soon set up, relaxing the rules for travellers from certain countries.
- Only this month were these scrapped
What a shambles .....
Defenders of the government's response will say "Nobody knew about the efects of the virus because it was new and the government did the best with what it had ..... it followed the science" .....
Well, anyone who's seen one of the classic "virus" movies in the last 50 years could easily forecast the disaster the was being allowed to happen by the tardy and incompetent government of one of the most technologically and socially advanced nations on earth .....
"Mad Dog" Trump may be unassailable with his 400,000 US citizens dead but Boris "The Blunderer" managed a quarter of that with a UK population a fifth of the size of the US .....