(06-26-2020, 10:49 PM)Ossian Wrote: My view is that we - and by 'we' I mean the government - created our own dilemma by going into lockdown later than other countries; a decision taken seemingly on the basis of nothing more substantial than bluster and a misplaced idea that we could somehow blag it. The delayed start inevitably led to a delayed exit and the inescapable conclusion that we had now fallen behind those same countries.

The government then couldn't handle the pressure that went with the consequences of their original indecision and have decided to implement an easing sequence based on the same flawed approach that led to their inertia in the first place.

By any measure Johnson and the cabinet don't come out of this well.

(06-26-2020, 10:07 PM)Brentbaggie Wrote: The death rate is not a good guide. The infection rate is the one we should be really worried about - unless you're dead of course - and that is now stubbornly around the 1000 mark.  Hospital admissions have fallen which is welcome but the numbers becoming infected should have fallen much further by now - as they did in Spain and Italy. Still reckon we came out of lockdown a week - 10 days too early.  Now it's a free-for-all as far as many people are concerned - except they're not concerned.

(06-30-2020, 11:59 AM)baggy1 Wrote: A 'good' week for excess deaths (week 25 up to 19th June) - compared with 2019 there are 119 less deaths in this equivalent week. This is the 1st week we have had that since week 10 (6th March). The breakdown by age group is 15 less deaths for the under 45s, 56 deaths more in the 45 - 64 range, and 160 less in the over 65s.Overall for England and Wales we have just dropped below 63k excess deaths for 2020 compared with 2019, hopefully we have turned a corner.

Concerningly up until last Friday the government published the daily hospital admissions figures and they were pretty up to date. For some reason they have stopped that this week and replaced it with data that is much further back, I had the data up to 23rd June as of Friday, so 3 days lag, but the 'new' dataset (labelled the latest data) only goes up to the 16th June as of today (14 days lag). At this point in time one of the critical indicators is up to date info on hospital admissions is crucial to know what is coming down the line. The government have decided to stop giving us that info. It really is one big fuck up.

(07-04-2020, 08:05 PM)FenlandBoing Wrote: USA posted a record number in infections for a single day today. Chile and Peru will sail past us with infection numbers in next few days. We aren't as well off as some, but better than others. Will be interesting to see real numbers in 6 months time.