To put things in perspective, the Corona virus has killed the same number of people in the UK as Michael Barrymore's swimming pool.
One good thing to come from this bollocks is the new Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty. Everything I’ve heard from him and about him has been great. The previous incumbent would have been lecturing and panicking us all over the place.
with everyone recommending alcohol based hand sanitizers, if alcohol is that good for you in these situations I will nip to the offy for a six pack, drink the beer and sweat the alcohol out....that way my whole body is protected
According to the latest statistics the mortality rates from various countries are: USA - 5.07% Italy - 4.2% China - 3.8% Iran - 2.6% Spain - 2.0% Japan - 1.37% On the other end of the scale South Korea is at 0.6% and Germany and all Scandinavian countries have over a thousand cases between them without a single fatality as yet. The American percentage does not tell us that much because they are based on only 335 cases. China now has a daily ratio of 10 times as many full recoveries as new cases and so is well on the way to beating this thing. The German state of NRW now has 400 cases (where I live ) and is considered Europe's second biggest blackspot after North Italy, yet still the Bundesliga is going ahead with full stadiums !
Some WHO bloke on the radio this morning singing the praises of the Chinese government’s response to the virus, claiming that the citizens of Hubei are showing extraordinary civic cohesion in their reaction. WHO has been shockingly toadying and arse licking to the Chinese government from day one, telling the rest of the world that they should respond just like them. Omitting of course to mention that zero standards around food and market hygiene and suppression of information about the outbreak were entirely the Chinese government’s responsibility. It’s good news that the spread appears to have halted in Hubei, but I would guess that the populations willingness to be locked in their own homes, even if not ill, for several months is jointly attributable to fear of the virus and fear of their own government. It’s quite difficult to lock up people like this in our western societies, where we don’t have government spies in every community or ‘managers’ of streets to make sure nobody leaves their homes and organise delivery of food. Thankfully.
As we have noted before those figures are meaningless because they are simply a ratio of deaths to known cases of infection and we know that the latter figure is wrong, and likely to be a massive underestimate. But there is some hope that the chaotic and useless response to the virus in Iran might contribute to the end of its hideous theocracy. And the slow response in the US, which actually has an excellent public health system (I know this doesn’t tally with the ideological prejudice of some on here - look at their TB rates compared to ours), might do Trump no favours in November, especially if coupled with a serious economic downturn.
These figures are simply an indication of a trend SB. There is, of course, a grey figure of unregistered cases, but this would not change the actual numbers of people dying of this thing - even unregistered cases of Corona would be registered upon death, simply as a result of normal post mortem examination. One of the Spanish cases was detected only after death. As for the Chinese response to this - throughout history of one epidemic after another the first rule has always been to seal off the area effected as soon as possible.. The health of the entire population is the paramount concern and, at times like these, the normal rights such as freedom of movement can be suspended in order to protect the greater good. I agree that it is probably easier for authoritarian regimes to tackle problems of this sort - maybe in this one case democracy is not the best system.
I guess I'm one of those that you might consider to be 'ideologically prejudiced' against the US healthcare system. The table below is from the Lancet's 2016 Healthcare Access and Quality survey and doesn't show the US - probably the richest country in the world - in that great a light. It seems to me that the issue in the US is not one of Quality, but of Access. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30994-2/fulltext please log in to view this image
That list doesn’t show the UK in such a great light either. Your criticisms of the US healthcare system are valid, certainly from a European perspective. The US is certainly an outlier in the ‘developed’ world in not having a universal health care system with equal access for all (although all providers are obliged to provide free emergency care). But that is their choice - if they want a system like ours (where amazingly the rich live longer and are healthier than the poor, and have more rapid access to many services if they want through cash) they can vote for it. It’s what Sanders is offering. Personally I don’t think it’s civilised to treat healthcare as a commodity, but that’s what it is, everywhere, we just place a different value on it and pay for it in different ways. It’s still rationed. Your criticisms of the US are precise and targeted as far as I remember (healthcare, gun control). But there are relatively frequent examples on here (including on this thread) of churned out knee jerk anti American generalisations.
Then I suggest post the deaths figures, but not the meaningless percentages. I would like to be persuaded to forgo my rights based on rationality, rather than have them taken away from me. History shows us that once a freedom is removed, it’s ****ing hard to get back without a fight.
