It’s a horrendous disease but so is heart disease which killed 170,000 last year.
The covid 19 mortality rate in Italy last time I checked was 8% and the average age of those deceased was 78. Italy has the second highest average age in the world and most of these older folks stay in Lombardy, the region most affected in Italy.
Germany has a mortality rate of 0.3% which is the lowest of all those countries most affected with by the virus but they are testing up to 160,000 per week so obviously identifying more people with the virus whereas the UK is trying to get testing up to these levels, we are telling folk with milder symptoms to stay home and not get tested, we currently have a mortality rate of 4.5% though the assistant Chief Medical Officer stated yesterday that she reckons it'll be around 1%.
I understand the requirement to slow the spreading of the virus as not to overwhelm the health-care system but we know who the core at-risk are and they will be swarming the supermarkets again tomorrow.
I feel the whole thing is massively overblown and will ultimately be futile. Talk of "beating" the virus is complete folly. There will be no victory, even in the unlikely even they find a vaccine, how long before the next virus takes hold and then what - more mass unemployment and businesses going to the wall, house prices tanking as the Govt "locksdown"?
Viruses aren't new and the tripe being spread on social media is dumbfounding at present.
Spanish flu killed millions, some folk say 50m-100m died. The first outbreak in 1918 attacked everyone but the elderly and those with underlying health issues were at particular risk.
The virus then mutated and proved particularly fatal to those in their prime - 20s to 40s.
Crucially, those who got the first, less fatal, flu, were immune to the second, deadlier wave. This was later identified as H1N1.
The last flu pandemic was in 2009, killed between 250,000-500,000 people worldwide - this flu was colloquially called swine flu, also identified as H1N1.
I understand folk dying isn't ideal but that's life.
The Govt are saying they expect 12,000-20,000 to die of Covid 19 and just one death is one death too many but to put that into context.
Normal seasonal flu kills 8,000.
Drinking kills 2,000
Road deaths 2,000
Smoking kills 80,000.
Heart disease 160,000.
Brexit means Brexit.