Which country has 3 times more deaths than Spain?
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BioNTech has apparently developed a candidate vaccine for multiple sclerosis as a byproduct of their coronavirus. Obviously, won’t be tested at the same breakneck speed as the covid vaccine, and they are at this stage cautious - but seem confident that mRNA has given them the building blocks for a major breakthrough.
Basically just showing off now…Nobel Prize has to be in the cards.
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Any idea what is happening in Ireland currently? They’ve had very few cases until recently due to good distancing measures, and now suddenly, this? I’m wondering, have people there started to lower their guard, especially during the festive days?
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I believe costared is referring to the current rate of death, rather than total accumulated, as between the UK and Spain (~1200/day versus ~400/day)
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Maybe,I just looked at the total figures and comparing populations and deaths neither the UK or Spain have performed well.
The figures are very close when you allow for population size
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Glad you said that as I was scratching my head on the same thing.
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The total deaths per 1M population are very close - but January is seeing the UK trying to build some distance - per million the rate yesterday was double in the UK.
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Winning all the things we shouldn’t.
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Unfortunately, a fairly common phenomenon. We are at our worst spot of the entire pandemic, nationally, provincially, and regionally. Still nowhere near the numbers we see elsewhere (even in the province, let alone in the fallen republic to the south), but I can feel the stress I am carrying around in my shoulders.
Having a variant emerge that has a higher infection rate for children has really shifted the mental challenge for me.
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Yes, incredible isn’t it - the sort of spin given to covid deaths by some in here.
We went ahead of Spain in terms of deaths/million for the first time only a couple of weeks ago - possibly attributable to the new strain and the measures (or lack thereof) taken against the virus during December. Before then Spain had suffered more deaths per capita by quite a significant degree.
For example as at 1 December 2020 Spain had had 45,511 covid related deaths according to worldometer. It’s now had 52,683 an increase of 7,172 (or 167 deaths/day on average).
The UK had had 59,051 covid related deaths at 1 December 2020. It’s now had 83,203 an increase of 24,152 (or 562 deaths/day on average).
Deaths per capita have gone from 1 December 2020 to 12 January 2021 as follows:
Spain 973/million to 1,127/million
UK 867/million to 1,222/million.
We’re much further ahead than Spain (and most other countries) with rolling out vaccinations but then we need to be. So far we’ve given a first dose to just over 4% of the population (2.84million), Spain has managed to give a first dose to 1% of theirs (488k).
Currently the UK makes up 58% of the total number of people who have now been fully vaccinated (received both doses) worldwide.
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News to me…
You killjoy you.
Sorry have not been around. Good read. Although he, himself, did say he was proved right by chance. Short term the economic impact would not be felt in terms of deaths. Increasing the divide between rich and poor, seeing a huge set of cost reduction, job losses after Covid ends would. I also expect to see more and more businesses go under over the next few months - even some big ones.
I am still convinced it’s a balance between lives and economy but he does show the balance is not how I thought.
That’s right but the evidence suggests that actually tackling the virus properly leads to less economic damage. New Zealand, Australia, Japan etc. all have tackled this virus more efficiently than the UK and subsequently have economies that are performing better (on a proportional basis).
It shouldn’t be a difficult concept to grasp that if you minimise the infections, recognise sources early, put in measure to protect the population then you can enjoy a more normal economy. Instead the UK leaves airports open with zero quarantine until September was it? Cant remember.
But when you have it running rife through the population you are literally playing with fire. Your only option is more restrictions.
@gasband btw isn’t the sinovac vaccine a 1 dose vaccine?
If so it makes it a lot less expensive and much easier logistically to administer.
At 84% efficacity against 50% efficacity if only 1 dose of Pfizer is given and unknown efficacity if 2 doses are given after the recommended delay it begs the question whhich is the more efficace?
It also begs the question over prices 2 doses of Pfizer is over 36 euros then there’s the storage constraints that increase the cost. I suggest pfizer and Moderna are taking the piss, then that’s just me.
Surely governments are seeing that 1 dose at 84% efficacity is much better than 2 doses giving at optimum 98% efficacity, no?
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Hmm in Singapore, it states Sinovac as 2 doses so I am not sure. I think the biggest problem is trust. People are already wary of rushed out vaccines and add on China’s perceived reputation of not the most transparent caused more distrust.
In Singapore, we also had voices of doubts on the Pfizer one but the latest announcement from Brazil which contradict their earlier announcements gave rise to more concerns.
But in Singapore, i guess the government has luxury of choices as we can afford it, my friends in countries like Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand which had Sinovac lined up are very concerned that their governments are compromising safety over getting the vaccines
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I do wonder, given that Aus, NZ and UK are all island nations, how they would compare in terms of economic damage if UK had locked the borders down. In Aus its basically life as normal inside that Australia bubble (minor setbacks like Melbourne, Sydney north beaches notwithstanding). But wouldn’t the composition of the Oceania country’s economies be vastly different to that of the UK partly because of their remoteness whereas the UK is at the doorstep of the EU and has a lot of travel from the Americas?
How much does the UK rely on international tourism? From what I understand, the UK’s tourism industry is about 4 times that of Australia’s. How much of each can have the slack picked up by domestic tourism if the borders were to close? That’s just one example, but I see that as the obvious example of where the economy suffers from closure of borders.
I guess what I want to say is that, even with the benefit of hindsight, I am not convinced this government would have closed the borders back in April if it would have compounded the current financial situation.
Yes it is 2 doses so you can forget what I wrote as it also appears fairly expensive. 
I don’t think it was feasible for the UK to close its borders but there’s a huge range of options it could have adopted between that and what the UK actually did at the border (basically nothing).
My view is that the UK should have imposed travel restrictions on places with high outbreaks of the virus immediately (China, then Italy) and initiated basic temperature screening of all passengers at the major airports. That would be fairly basic and straightforward to set up quickly (as other countries did) and whilst it wouldn’t catch many of those who might be infected it would catch a fair number.
As soon as the technology came in to do quick tests (lateral flow) for the virus then these should also have then been added to (or replaced) the temperature checks. Anyone found positive then all of the passengers on the plane they arrived on would then be required to self-isolate for 14 days unless they took a PCR test that came back negative.
Again, combined with travel bans imposed on places with serious outbreaks (from time to time) this would have had a massive impact upon the rates of infection within the UK as a major international travel hub.
As it was we basically did very little to prevent the onward spread within the UK from international travel and reacted too slowly in imposing measures domestically that could have had a significant affect on the rates of infection during each peak.
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