The German health system is well funded, available to all and not subject to political interference. Nevertheless the virus has spread there too and they have gone into lockdown to try and halt it, ease pressure on the health system and save lives.
The British political management of this crisis has been shambolic and yes, the NHS is stretched, stressed and under funded but better funding wouldn't, on its own, halt the spread of the virus. That's mostly down to a lack of understanding by Joe Public and resulting careless or bad behaviour.
Asymptomatic spread has been known about for months but not taken seriously by anyone as far as I can tell.
The French management hasn't been much better but at least the lockdown rules have been clear about what you can and can't do and I have seen no-one wandering about with no mask in public places. There have been 2.75m cases here and 67480 deaths so far.
The countries that have handled it well tend to be the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes whose control of their citizens is unacceptable to Europeans with their ideas of personal liberty. The only way to stop it is to close the borders, keep people confined and limit their contacts until the vaccine is rolled out. The economy will recover in time but people cannot be brought back from the dead.
It could be worse. Just look at the USA and Brazil where there has been a total failure of political leadership.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Yes Obe, The ‘would you mind awfully’ approach just doesn’t work. of course the economy will pick up, countries were absolutely broke after two world worlds, 15 years later it was on the way to a good recovery. i had a Japanese pen from Hiroshima, you have to marvel at those people , that city was fantastic by the early 60’s. as you say, economy will improve, lives are gone.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
The figures on this site look ok'ish for reliability - or at least, should I say, the UK figures agree each day with the gov.uk figures (edited to add: as reported here https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases).
You can filter the list and sort by the headings.
I'm still amazed by China - their figures hit 80k+ way back and have hardly moved. There was a report recently that Wuhan alone had had 500k+ cases, making a mockery of their figures, but who knows? It's especially difficult to judge given there doesn't seem to be a standard way of doing each count - and obviously countries with bigger testing samples will likely have higher counts.
Also edited to add: See the map and the scrolling timeline for the uk at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map - NB the map is based on data a week old. The map is zoomable and the timeline at the top will show you how things have changed.
The worldometers site quotes the source of the data for each country which seems to be the official agency that reports figures in each country - hence why the UK figures agree with those published by the government!
I've become a bit obsessive at following the figures on that site for the various countries that I'm interested in and would disagree that the best handling has been done by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam are all countries which seem to have done very well, for example.
South Korea has previous experience with Sars and a compliant population which understands the need for masks and distancing. NZ and Oz are surrounded by water and hard to get to and easy to control arrivals. Don't know enough about Vietnam.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
South Korea has previous experience with Sars and a compliant population which understands the need for masks and distancing. NZ and Oz are surrounded by water and hard to get to and easy to control arrivals. Don't know enough about Vietnam.
Yes, I agree with this, although sections of South Korea's population have been rather less than compliant (some of the stranger Christian sects in particular). I think one thing all these countries have in common is that they have populations which are broadly supportive of their governments' approaches and that they have very good track-and-trace systems.
Now that we have several vaccines available to help stem the tide of this virus I am surprised at how many people are wanting to refuse it! There are the obvious antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists but also a lot of ethnic groups,including ones that are most at risk.Some polls show a 50-78% refusal rate! I think that once everyone has been offered the vaccine then life should get back to 'normal' as soon as possible.If you have refused the vaccine when offered you will just have to take your chances but let everyone just get on with life. We have been given a way out of all this so take the chance while you can.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
I did wonder why my parents (aged late 70s, so group 3 on the priority list) have got their first vaccine appointments for this week. Presumably the GP practice has got a delivery of vaccine and is contacting its patients in order of priority until they find someone who wants it.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Of course things won't return to how things were before Covid any time soon, or at all, but I will worry less about my parents getting seriously ill with Covid once they've had their vaccinations. They don't go out much anyway but I'll make sure they understand that they can still catch it and spread it to others.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
The British political management of this crisis has been shambolic and yes, the NHS is stretched, stressed and under funded but better funding wouldn't, on its own, halt the spread of the virus. That's mostly down to a lack of understanding by Joe Public and resulting careless or bad behaviour.
Asymptomatic spread has been known about for months but not taken seriously by anyone as far as I can tell.
The French management hasn't been much better but at least the lockdown rules have been clear about what you can and can't do and I have seen no-one wandering about with no mask in public places. There have been 2.75m cases here and 67480 deaths so far.
The countries that have handled it well tend to be the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes whose control of their citizens is unacceptable to Europeans with their ideas of personal liberty. The only way to stop it is to close the borders, keep people confined and limit their contacts until the vaccine is rolled out. The economy will recover in time but people cannot be brought back from the dead.
It could be worse. Just look at the USA and Brazil where there has been a total failure of political leadership.
of course the economy will pick up, countries were absolutely broke after two world worlds, 15 years later it was on the way to a good recovery.
i had a Japanese pen from Hiroshima, you have to marvel at those people , that city was fantastic by the early 60’s.
as you say, economy will improve, lives are gone.
I've become a bit obsessive at following the figures on that site for the various countries that I'm interested in and would disagree that the best handling has been done by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam are all countries which seem to have done very well, for example.
There are the obvious antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists but also a lot of ethnic groups,including ones that are most at risk.Some polls show a 50-78% refusal rate!
I think that once everyone has been offered the vaccine then life should get back to 'normal' as soon as possible.If you have refused the vaccine when offered you will just have to take your chances but let everyone just get on with life.
We have been given a way out of all this so take the chance while you can.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border