Something fundamentally flawed in the U.K. by this measure, as well as most of the others.
Age or general state of health of the population is one possibility, medical approach to covid (Though I can’t see the drs reaction was any different here to elsewhere so unlikely), political management of the situation, some unknown factor? My money is on generally poor metabolic health as a nation and pandemic management.
Yes,
And Vitamin D deficiency - we are further north than Italy and Spain and France, aren't we?
Metabolic health is a big one, with the UK having higher rates of obesity than the rest of Europe.
And as for the average British way of eating... that hardly sets us up for good health, does it? The modern French, German, Spanish and Italian way of eating may not be classic 'Mediterranean Diet' but they are closer to it than the good ol' hobnob and chips and a takeaway, seen so often in the UK.
- none of which ever seems to factor in to the mainstream number crunching.
Honestly, I sometimes despair as I look at the Worldometers site.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
We are up to 9 million confirmed cases, nearly half a million deaths, and some countries are just getting started.
A couple of days ago, the rise was in excess of 180,000 confirmed cases
in just one day.
So many ways that countries SHOULD NOT be comparing themselves.
It isn't about numbers of cases, it is about the R number and the rate of growth, yet that becomes less relevant as the cases reduce in number in a country, and then it becomes about small hotspots such as are happening in China, and refrigerated food facilities in Germany, Wales, UK... and office environments such as S Korea.
Age of population is a significant factor.
Health of aged population is a huge factor.
It isn't about case numbers or deaths or tests, because they all vary hugely from country to country. (Anyone seen the latest news from America where a 'joke' suggestion stated that reducing the number of tests would improve the stats, cos if you don't test, you don't find...)
The more testing, the lower the % recorded killed by the virus.
The less testing, the more the Excess Death toll tells a better story.
Even the Excess Death figs are highly suspect in some countries, and in others (e.g. India) no one is accurately tracking the deaths at all, let alone having accurate records going back 5 years for comparison.
Fascinating to watch the different policies of different countries; China, North and South Korea, Brazil, America, France, Sweden, Russia... but the tragedy is that there don't actually seem to be
any winners. China looks like it has a miniscule death toll per million yet faces an indefinite future of Lockdowns and closed borders. Russia's stats are highly suspect, and the Excess Deaths for Moscow suggest that the all causes death toll is around 60% up from prev years (compared with the UK's 57%). France had a brutal Lockdown and only a 27% increase in Excess Deaths, but now they are opening up again, with the start of the festival season... Sweden has a rolling problem and no sign of a tail off in cases (in fact Swedish weekly cases have nearly doubled the last two weeks), and India, Brazil and America are just increasing and increasing with no lid on them, and no central control.
Anyone wanting references for these figs is welcome to ask, but really, they are simply gleaned from the news, and a bit of googling. For instance, if you google 'Covid excess deaths Moscow' you will get some fascinating articles cropping up, including anonymous articles by coroners and records clerks who know what is really going on, but cannot sign their names for fear of official consequences.