The state of play on the virus worldwide

The worldometer shows us the official figures for virus cases, deaths and population numbers. It seems best to compare cases and deaths per  million to  get some kind of impression on how countries have fared.

The UK is 29th on  the list of cases per million at 87,188. The USA, Brazil, France, Spain, Netherlands, Czechia, Belgium and many others are higher. The UK is 20th in the list of deaths per million, just nine deaths per million more than the USA and well below Peru, Hungary, many of the Balkan countries, Italy, Brazil, Poland and Belgium.

It would be good to hear from the experts why countries like Hungary, Peru and Belgium had such a bad time, whilst Japan at 121 and South Korea at 41 deaths per  million have contained it better so far, not to say Taiwan at 33 deaths. Nearer to home how did Luxembourg have such a high figure of 116,000 cases per 1 million, yet with  1293 deaths per million had a low end  death rate of 1.1% compared to Poland where  it was 2.6% and Hungary 3.7%.

There needs to be analysis of which countries had most success in avoiding cases, and which were best at treating the virus. All this of course will also need work to be done on the figures themselves, as countries adopted different definitions of a covid death and ran  very different levels of testing to try to find the infection

 

 

156 Comments

  1. Mark B
    August 7, 2021

    Good morning.

    When Western settlers first encountered peoples’ from the New World they brought with them many things including disease. Diseases such as the Common Cold were not dangerous to Westerners but fatal to the natives. This was due to what we would now call, ‘herd immunity’ in the settlers. CV19 and other similar diseases emanated from the Far East from people that had some herd immunity, hence the low infection rates.

    I have warned here time and time again that it is unwise to compare one country to another – Apples and Oranges and all that. It would be far more beneficial if we were to compare global regions.

    In any case, there has been a massive overreaction and an opportunity seized by those hungry for power. The Black Death was responsible for freeing the peasants in Europe from their serfdom and ever since the rich and the powerful have been fighting to put us back there. And they are succeeding !

    1. MiC
      August 7, 2021

      You have voted precisely for the de-emancipation of the ordinary person.

      That is what Torydom is, plain and simple.

    2. Everhopeful
      August 7, 2021

      Hear, hear!

    3. steve
      August 7, 2021

      Mark B

      “In any case, there has been a massive overreaction and an opportunity seized by those hungry for power. The Black Death was responsible for freeing the peasants in Europe from their serfdom and ever since the rich and the powerful have been fighting to put us back there. And they are succeeding !”

      Absolutely correct.

    4. lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      It is not really “unwise to compare one country to another” but clearly there are various differences to consider. If however you look at my comparisons below with UK with Sweden and with Singapore the differences are so massive we really should try to understand why the UK, PHE, Hancock, Simon Stevens, Sage, JCVI and the NHS seem to have performed so very badly in relative terms. Even in terms of deaths per + infection case.

      1. Everhopeful
        August 7, 2021

        I read somewhere that Sweden has followed the OLD pandemic plan 
the one we tore up!

        1. bigneil - newer comp
          August 7, 2021

          On a website I go on an English man now living out there in Sweden says life is normal, even showed photos of gatherings etc.

        2. Lifelogic
          August 7, 2021

          Indeed they did. The Barrington declaration was surely the way to go but the government had a deluded attack dog PPE graduate MP personally attacking the very sensible scientists like Prof. Gupta and others pushing this more sensible agenda.

          So now that it is virtually certain Covid 19 was indeed a leak from the Wuhan lab and not a natural jump from the wet market animals is D Rabb going to correct his statement on the most likely cause or is he going to wait even longer for the Biden US report.

          Prof. Dalgleish at St Georges and the republican party certainly seem now to have very little doubt at all – on GMTV.

      2. lifelogic
        August 7, 2021

        The postings below not yet through approval.

        1. lifelogic
          August 7, 2021

          moderation rather

      3. Helen Smith
        August 7, 2021

        Personally I suspect the left leaning heads of the Civil Service and NHS have done everything they can to increase the death count from CoVid to make the Tories look bad, either that or the NHS has done a very bad job.

        1. MFD
          August 7, 2021

          +1

        2. Lifelogic
          August 8, 2021

          The dumping of Covid patients into Care homes and failure to properly isolate Covid patients in fever hospitals (or areas of hospitals) was incompetent and an outrage. It was this government’s policy.

    5. J Bush
      August 7, 2021

      +1
      I am fed up with career politicians and the SAGE mob etc claiming they are following the science, but refuse to accept natural herd immunity exists.

      If as they claim this virus has been around for 18 months, then there is a strong likelihood those who have come into contact with it now have the relevant immunity. Just like the common cold, which is also in the covid family.

      If I am wrong and this is apparently deadly virus and just as virulent as they claim, and everybody desperately needs a jab of an experimental gene therapy. Why use scaremongering fear tactics, coercion and threats? And why haven’t people been dropping like flies?

      FOI requests prove their claims are lies.

      1. X-Tory
        August 7, 2021

        If they were really “following the science” then why have they ignored the findings of Addebrookes Hospital? Their study found that FFP3 masks give the wearer virtually 100% protection (look it up yourselves if you don’t believe me – Google is your friend). So if you are (or feel) vulnerable and are not satisfied with the protection the vaccine gives you, just wear an FFP3 mask, and don’t force everyone else to modify their lives for you. It really is that simple.

  2. Sea_Warrior
    August 7, 2021

    The USA seems to be homing in, slowly, on our deaths/million figure. My suspicion is that that’s because we have a better vaccination programme and fewer people thinking that one can defeat a nasty virus by reciting constitutional principles.
    Still wanting a late summer holiday, I pay more attention to the weekly trends figures on Worldometers – particularly the %age increase in cases and the cases/million over the past seven days. I question why I should be expected to pay for expensive COVID testing to return from a country that is safer than the UK. (Take a look at the figures for Greece, Sir John.)
    Coming soon: mass redundancies across the airlines.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      August 7, 2021

      And ferries and railways. We will be unable to get back to normal even if we want to.

      1. Mitchel
        August 7, 2021

        Re railways,depends where you are.Rail freight from Asia to Europe is getting a big boost both from the rapidly developing infrastructure and the reduction in air freight,much of which travels in the holds of passenger flights.Just noticed a news item from earlier this year on RailFreight.com “Tenfold increase for Eurasian freight traffic through Hungary.”And Hungary is building a new bespoke terminal at Zahony(the East-West Gate) due to open early next year for traffic from China to Austria,Switzerland,Italy,Slovenia,Croatia and Germany,bypassing,I believe,Ukraine.

    2. Richard II
      August 7, 2021

      Sea Warrior: Your ‘cases’ are cases of nothing, just lab test results that come up positive and give no confirmation of infection, let alone illness. I think you are wasting your time looking at them, and you’d be better off looking at all-cause mortality on the Our World in Data site. It shows excess mortality during Covid 19. You’ll see that mortality in Britain has been below average since March. You can attribute that to the Covid vaccines if you want to.

  3. Oldtimer
    August 7, 2021

    As you say, international comparisons are compromised by different definitions resulting in dodgy data. That does not slow down the alarmists and fear mongers who seize every opportunity to compromise freedom of choice about where we go and what we do. One day, perhaps, we may get measures appropriate to the infection risk – but that is probably too big an ask of those wielding the bludgeon of the law.

  4. Mary M.
    August 7, 2021

    Good Morning, Sir John.

    “testing TO TRY TO FIND the infection”. So apt.

    Will the Coronavirus Act 2020 be repealed when it comes up for its third six-monthly debate in September? If it is not repealed, we will have yet another six months of Boris Johnson and his small cabal of advisers making sweeping edicts without any discussion or debate in Parliament. For example, with debate, the roll-out of covid ‘vaccines’ for children without parental permission (16- and 17-year-olds are children) could have been forestalled.

    We read today that PHE has found that the fully ‘vaccinated’ have a similar viral load to the ‘unvaccinated’. This suggests that the ‘vaccinated’ can transmit Covid to the same extent as the ‘unvaccinated’. That’s good news. Definitely no need for ‘Vaccine Passports’ to get into venues now.

    (I use inverted commas for ‘vaccine’ because this drug which has not yet reached the end of its experimental phase (2023 at the earliest) does not behave as a traditional vaccine ie. immunisation against a particular disease.)

    1. Sea_Warrior
      August 7, 2021

      Your second paragraph makes me think that ‘COVID passports’ might not be needed but at-venue LF testing might be. I’ll repeat my belief that the government is being slow in rolling out ‘sniffer’ technology.

      1. jerry
        August 7, 2021

        @S_W; If what Mary said about viral loads is true, indeed it makes vaccine passports irrelevant, the only proven weapon again the virus will be social-distancing, compulsory testing, enforced self-isolation and -ultimately- fully enforced Lockdowns!…

        Also Mary shows a total ignorance as to the testing procedure for vaccines, the testing of the CV19 vaccines were completed, it is just that many stages of testing were done in parallel, not linear, nothing wrong in that approach for stages not dependant on the results of parallel tests.

        1. Hat man
          August 7, 2021

          Mary is right to express concern. Of course the go-ahead for a later stage of the trial process depends on the results of the previous ones. This is why that’s the normal way of doing things: anything else could be seen as a reckless lack of diligence towards the larger numbers of people participating in later stages.

          Vaccines and other medical products are routinely evaluated by a body independent of the industry. In this country this is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – MHRA. The regulators check that the trials show the product meets the necessary efficacy and safety levels. They also make sure that, for most people, the product’s advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. But the novel Covid vaccines were reportedly authorised on the basis of only two months worth of study of the participants in the trials, completely inadequate for understanding longer-term effects on them.

          The MHRA did not publish the evidence it used to give the vaccines temporary authorisation last December. At that same time, the Swiss regulator said the manufacturers hadn’t given it required data ‘on the effectiveness of the clinical trials and on the important subgroups that participated in these large studies’. It’s hard to believe that the MHRA was given preferential treatment over the nation housing the WHO, so there’s a question as to how well the MHRA were doing their job.

        2. mongoose
          August 7, 2021

          It is true that one can do a lot of short tests in parallel. However the long term effect of a drug inside a human being requires the human being to live. This cannot be speeded up. The long term effect of the various ‘vaccines’ cannot therefore yet be known. We are though undertaking a massive field trial.

          NB There never has been a successful vaccine against a coronavirus in the entire history of the universe. Yet we are now asked to believe that several have turned up at once. This is unlikely.

          1. MiC
            August 8, 2021

            Given the trillions of Earth-like planets which probably exist, that really is quite some claim.

        3. MiC
          August 8, 2021

          There remains much to be learnt.

          For instance, we know that the virus is spread by the expulsion of particle-laden droplets, particularly by coughing and sneezing, but also by talking – notably shouting – and singing.

          So if the vaccinated have lesser symptoms – as has been shown to be the case – then they will perhaps cough and sneeze less, and expel less virus, though this is something that is yet to be quantified.

          The loudmouth at the pub bar can still do his bit though.

          It all supports the continuation of mask wearing so far as is practical, as the successful countries of the Far East continue to do.

    2. Everhopeful
      August 7, 2021

      +1

    3. lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      Only 1 in 1500 of Covid+ cases died in Singapore and yet in the UK it was 1 in 46 that died. This despite much more extensive testing in the UK which should have pushed matters the other way. What is the difference between the NHS and the Singapore system of healthcare to make such a huge difference in deaths per case? Why, in the UK, did over 32 times more people dies even per Covid case? Many at home or in care homes. The UK also had far more Cases. Even now we have many more home deaths than normal and fewer in hospital ones due to NHS failing patients hugely.

      We have had about 50,000+ extra non Covid collateral deaths from NHS failure to treat other conditions so far with very many more to come.

      Why too did only circa one ninth of people who died of Covid receive intensive care from the NHS before dying? Where they not sufficiently ill or just left to die to save the NHS. Does anyone really still think the NHS is the envy of the world or even remotely competent?

      1. lifelogic
        August 7, 2021

        Michael Levitt today on twitter gives these figures:- “We can only accurately know all-cause excess death.
        From week 01 of 2020 to week 30 of 2021 (72 weeks), the net excess death in Sweden over that predicted using mortality in 2017, 2018 & 2019 is now 385-360=15 deaths out of 125,000 natural deaths.
        So a small burden of death.”

        A total of 15 deaths above normal expected in Sweden and with far less disruption and economic damage than the UK. In the UK however (despite all the lockdowns) we have excess deaths about 1,000 times the Sweden level per million population. Well done Gov., Hancock, PHE and the (envy of no one sensible) NHS?

        1. Everhopeful
          August 7, 2021

          +1
          Did they decide to put old, sick people who got covid in “care” homes onto the Liverpool Pathway ( the name has now changed)?
          With the help of some pretty sledgehammer-like drugs.
          Relieving NHS.
          All part of the new pandemic plan maybe?
          St Anthony’s Fire at the seat of government
or something similar


          1. Everhopeful
            August 7, 2021

            Relatives and visitors kept firmly away from the “care” homes and diagnosis unvarying
covid every time??

          2. Lifelogic
            August 8, 2021

            Indeed.

      2. THUTCH
        August 9, 2021

        We’re also fatter.

    4. Brian Tomkinson
      August 7, 2021

      +1

    5. DOM
      August 7, 2021

      ‘Europhobe’

    6. MFD
      August 7, 2021

      Yes ! todays PHE data show that the ‘vaccine’ is 17% effective. 339 deaths in the fully vaccinated group and 117 in the non vaccinated group, I do wonder if the experiment should be declared a failure!
      In the good old days vaccination prevented the infection completely so I think this mRNA method has failed

      1. lifelogic
        August 7, 2021

        Would be good to know the breakdown by vaccine type. The figures I have seen suggest the vaccines give older people about 1/5 the chance of dying compared to unvaccinated of similar age so worth having but with little or no improvement for people under about 35.

      2. Peter from Leeds
        August 7, 2021

        This is misleading nonsense- I am amazed it was allowed through moderation. If 100% of the population was vaccinated then all deaths would be in the vaccinated group – which would, by your argument, imply 0% effective – the exact opposite of the truth.

        The two groups are not the same size. A full analysis of the data clearly demonstrates the fantastic success of the vaccines.

        1. Lifelogic
          August 8, 2021

          This is with suitable adjustments for the proportion who have been vaccinated.

        2. mongoose
          August 8, 2021

          It’s an mRNA coronavirus – a set of same now. It (they) mutates to be more transmissable and less lethal. That’s what they do. Vaccination is all but impossible beyond the 35-40% symptom-reduction achieved by eg the flu jabs. Not that that is not good – it is. But most of the people who were going to die of the novel covid have already done so. I bet millions die this year of flu because of lockdowns. Human beings are social animals and herd immunity is our real protection against these things. We live our three-score-and-ten among our own and when we are tired and old, we should not ruin the lives of our kids and grandchildren to grab on to another charmless, contactless, inhuman winter alone.

          I regret now being jabbed. It was stupid and weak.

          1. MiC
            August 8, 2021

            Fatalistic rubbish from start to finish.

        3. Micky Taking
          August 8, 2021

          Peter – why spoil a good news story for the deniers !

    7. No Longer Anonymous
      August 7, 2021

      +1

  5. MiC
    August 7, 2021

    “It would be good to hear from the experts why countries like Hungary, Peru and Belgium had such a bad time”

    Is John somehow trying to suggest that the UK – with similar if slightly better figures – did NOT have “such a bad time”?

    1. Dave Andrews
      August 7, 2021

      The UK has had liberties restricted and racked up massive debts through all this, so I’d say it’s patently true the UK has had a bad time.
      On the other hand, night clubs and pop concerts were suspended. Every cloud…

    2. Micky Taking
      August 7, 2021

      We had a bad time. Why? Pure and simply due to Government hesitations and head in sand, plus NHS abdication of management. A couple of potty ‘scientists’ got listened to, even when regularly changing information to suit their 15 seconds of fame, becoming 15 months of horrors.

    3. lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      The UK performance is clearly among the worst in international comparisons. This measured in terms of A. infections per million. B. deaths per infection and C. collateral deaths from other conditions (due to NHS and GPs largely closing down).

      The reasons are probably mainly A. the dumping of infected people tested and untested into care homes to infect other B. the lockdowns which reduced Covid spread among the young (in effect earlier, natural vaccination of the young) C. the rather poor and very rationed NHS service (most victims got little real treatment and no intensive care at all many did not even make it to hospital) D. The failure to isolate infected patients sufficiently causing very high nosocomial infections (in hospitals, care homes and to and via staff). E High rates of obesity and the oldish population. F failure to vaccinate in order or gender risk from Covid (men about 5 years younger than women which almost certainly killed over 1000+ extra people.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        August 7, 2021

        I can’t just let you skirt over E as though it’s an insignificant part of the issue.

        We have both an ageing-sick population and a chronically obese-at-all-ages nation. Both are a ‘credit’ to our NHS and welfare system – a success story but with unintended and unpleasant consequences. Obesity is a sign of poverty in the UK. Deny that that is a success in the history of the human race.

        We have been very good at perpetuating sickness in the overcrowded UK and keeping people alive who ought not to have been. We were already struggling with an epidemic when the CV-19 pandemic hit and were far more vulnerable than most nations because our people had the very conditions that Covid preyed upon.

        The Left will try to frame it that it’s down to an underfunded NHS but the complete reverse is true.

        1. Lifelogic
          August 8, 2021

          I agree it is a significant factor.

      2. MiC
        August 7, 2021

        Can’t really blame the European Union or Labour for any of that, with a Tory majority of eighty, can you?

      3. THUTCH
        August 9, 2021

        I don’t think our excess death numbers vs other European countries are too bad for 2020.
        When you adjust for population growth you end up with a total death rate of 1.01% for the year vs 0.92% 5 year mean.
        I note that you fall into the common trap of accepting Covid deaths at face value.
        For Covid deaths, population density is also a factor as is the incidence of intergenerational mixing.
        Border openness is also high on my list.

        Not much you can do about any of these.
        Thousands of lorries bring us perishable food from Europe every day so we can’t shut the borders as is often suggested.

  6. matthu
    August 7, 2021

    Covid modelling – and statistics – mostly knowingly crap and designed to invoke fear or provide excuse to make holiday travel more expensive or inaccessible to the majority (with exceptions for climate conference attendees, government ministers, the rich and elite).

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      August 7, 2021

      Correct Matthu but not only holidays. Every shop I went to this morning has still got signs up asking people to respect the workers and wear a face mask. So…… about 90% of the shoppers have still got face masks on as if we are still in crisis. I fear we will never get back to normal at this rate. Needless to say I didn’t wear mine but felt very guilty by the time I’d finished. I don’t know about herd immunity but I felt like it was herd guilt trip.

      1. J Bush
        August 7, 2021

        I have only worn a mask once and that was when the GP receptionist told I couldn’t have an appointment unless I wore one. When I saw the GP, he noticed I was uncomfortable wearing it and told me I could take it off, for which I gratefully thanked him.

        I take my daughter for her shop once a week, she prefers to go early afternoon mid-week. This week was an eye opener to the previous week. We also had to go to more than one shop to get everything she had on her list. All the shops are in one town and well within a mile radius of each other.
        Note these % are approximate to what we saw
        Morrisons = 80% wearing masks
        Tesco = 45- 50% wearing masks
        Aldi = 20% wearing masks
        Home Bargains = less than 5% wearing masks

        I prefer to do my own food shop on a Saturday and go early in the morning. A legacy from when I worked full-time and I did so to avoid screaming kids and/or running up and down aisles and waiting in long queues to pay for my goods, as this left me with more of my week-end time for other things. However, the mask wearing difference is stark.
        Morrisons = 95% wearing masks
        Aldi = 90% wearing masks.
        What I witness at this time is masks and some almost leaping onto the shelves to avoid someone who is at least 6′ away.

        I am inclined put this difference down to the ones the Johnson regime has successfully frightened and who go early to avoid the crowds. He has a lot to answer for the damage he has done to some people.

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        August 7, 2021

        I too ‘respect’ the workers. I dislike this hijacking of the word ‘respect’ by the mask-ists. I respect the workers and want to see them free not to wear masks and I’m prepared to make my stand to do so.

        “I’ll protect you and you protect me.”

        No. Don’t worry about me. You protect yourself.

        Time for people who still want to wear masks to wear N95s and let the rest of us out of these ghastly things. They are a real problem if you are partially deaf or claustrophobic as I am (both.)

    2. J Bush
      August 7, 2021

      +1
      A mistake repeated more than once is deliberate.
      1. Neil Ferguson (using computer modelling as a scare factor)
      2. Matt Hancock (overbearing draconian autocratic dictates to the masses)
      3. G7 meeting did it for me.
      4. They have continued the double standards with Wimbledon, football and no doubt the COP26.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        August 7, 2021

        They also tell us that it is imperative that we take the vaccine but when we ask for our freedom back they tell us that the vaccine doesn’t work.

        Boris has kept us in masks by emotional blackmail instead of law. He has recruited Karen to do his dirty work in enforcing it.

        What a player.

  7. steve
    August 7, 2021

    What I’d like to know is when is Boris Johnson going to lead the way by banning imports from China ?

    1. Everhopeful
      August 7, 2021

      Never!
      He wants to drag us to carbon zero on the back of China’s coal!

    2. bigneil - newer comp
      August 7, 2021

      Steve – BJ can’t even stop rubber dinghies – nor does he want to – never mind things from China.

  8. DOM
    August 7, 2021

    ‘as countries adopted different definitions of a Covid death’. In other words, tweaked the definition of what constitutes a CV19 death to inflate the ‘case’ and death figures to justify the imposition of a State monitoring regime with one aim, to assert centralised control over populations, their movements and their behaviour

    CV19 is a virus, it exists and that much is undeniable, but there are far too many who believe that what we are seeing is clinical event with the State adopting a position whose concern is primarily humanitarian in nature. That thinking is erroneous, naive and dangerous. Such a state of mind leaves you vulnerable. What we are seeing is a political event with one fundamental purpose, it is the remodelling of the relationship between the political State and the private individual who comes under its jurisdiction

    It angers me to see libertarian Tory MPs meekly accept these authoritarian impositions because they know they are the foundation stones of further oppression and monitoring to come. I find that position deeply troubling for if these ‘small State’ politicians won’t defend our freedoms who will?

    TCW has been running articles for months now about how CV19 is being used for sinister political ends. I have no doubt they are accurate, well researched and bang on the money. It is wrong for Tory politicians who shall remain nameless to appear on TV to do Johnson’s bidding by playing ‘vaxxed’ off against ‘anti-Vaxxed’. This Marxist analysis is utterly abhorrent and those MPs need to crawl away. Indeed this analysis of good v evil or victim v oppressor is now being rolled out across a myriad of human issues to demonise and slander millions of human beings according to their status and identity

    The Tory party’s fall from grace into the willing embrace of the sinister left is without question one of the most deceitful and nation changing political events for centuries and it will end with the destruction of our voice and our privacy. The private person will become State property which is the ultimate wet dream of all like Michie and co. They’re nearly there thanks to Tory appeasement

  9. Philip P.
    August 7, 2021

    Some good questions here, Sir John, but we won’t get answers to them from ‘the experts’, at least not those on the government’s approved experts list. They won’t even ask those questions, never mind provide answers. They can see what happened recently to Prof. Robert Dingwall, who disagreed with giving the Covid vaccine to teenagers, and was pushed off the government vaccine policy committee. He wondered what benefit there was in vaccinating children, who are acknowledged even by the likes of Anthony Fauci not to be significant spreaders of disease, and who are very rarely at any serious risk themselves.

    There’s less of a problem when it’s realised we already have the answer to one of your most important questions: Is there a correlation between severity of lockdowns and disease outcomes in countries worldwide? It has been shown over and over again in research papers that there isn’t. Unfortunately that won’t matter to a government like yours, that isn’t following the science.

  10. Micky Taking
    August 7, 2021

    A better understanding of transmission is required. It is quite likely another significant virus will occur. We at least should be prepared and able to undertake much earlier preventative measures. How relative are airborn particles to touch – flesh and various surfaces? How long does this virus survive on each? Does air temperature matter? Are any of quoted ‘miracle’ product defences any good?
    Whether Covid was designed, or escaped to humans is not the point, it will be around and a risk for the foreseeable future.

    1. Everhopeful
      August 7, 2021

      On t’other hand.
      People were cancelled on social media for even suggesting the virus was lab-leaked.
      Why?
      Now that theory has become the narrative.
      Far better than folk doubting the very existence of a novel virus maybe?

  11. Brian Tomkinson
    August 7, 2021

    The test methods, measurements and statistics are all challengeable. In my opinion they have been manipulated to create a climate of fear which has enabled this wrotten government to take away our liberties and freedom aided and abetted by complicit MPs and media, paid handsomely to act as government propagandists (modern day William Joyces). We no longer live in a parliamentary democracy but under an elective dictatorship. MPs should be ashamed of the supine role they have played and thereby betrayed their constituents and the country.

    1. Jim Whitehead
      August 7, 2021

      B. T. , +1, Not a single superfluous sentence, thank you. Well written and, to ‘our betters’, dangerously laden with truths.

      1. Brian Tomkinson
        August 7, 2021

        Jim, Thank you.

    2. Lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      +1. Why nothing from the BBC (or Rabb) on the (surely virtually certain now) Wuhan leak cause. Too busy pushing the climate crisis fiction, climate alarmism every day and reporting “extreme weather events”. BBC reporters seem to think “extreme weather events” are new, despite all the abundant historic evidence to the contrary.

  12. Alan Jutson
    August 7, 2021

    I would not put too much faith in any figures on Covid JR.
    Testing is not carried out to the same standard, or indeed perhaps at all by many countries of the World.
    Many people with few symptoms and no testing may have had a slight infection without knowing.
    Deaths have been recorded in so many different ways with so many other complications, It is difficult to be very accurate. on a single cause.
    It may perhaps be used at best as a rule of thumb within the developed Countries, but elsewhere trying to get even rule of thumb calculations may lead to a high margin of error.

    As for Asia, many in that region have suffered from SARS before, so they may have built up some immunity from those past infections, given we are informed Covid is a type of variation of SARS.

    Probably the most accurate figures can be gained from the results of tests set out and completed on the same people, in the same regions, at set time scales, completed over many months when the UK were trying to get an idea of the spread of the virus in the UK.

    1. IanT
      August 7, 2021

      How can you have any faith in statistics, when someone who is hit by a bus (but tests positive for Covid in hospital) and later dies from his/her injuries – is included in the Covid related deaths?

      My mother was in a Care Home for three years and other residents passed away quite regularly – often the ones you would least expect (e.g. those who seemed brightest and fittest). Old people are clearly vulnerable to infections but I do wonder how many deaths recorded as being Covid related were often other things or simply old age. I very much doubt we will ever know the actual facts.

      I think the only useful comparison given differences in metrics across even regions, is probably excess deaths per million.

      1. Alan Jutson
        August 7, 2021

        Ian T

        I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that our death rates due solely to covid have been exaggerated, and many other Countries understated.

        Hence my comment.

        Testing results depend upon who does it, as many people who self test do not actually use the correct procedure, but if the same people are always in the test sample, and always do it the same way, you get a better indication of how the virus is multiplying or reducing week -week ,month- month, as the error is one of the constants.
        Sounds daft, but actually correct.

  13. Bryan Harris
    August 7, 2021

    why countries like Hungary, Peru and Belgium had such a bad time, whilst Japan at 121 and South Korea at 41 deaths per million have contained it better

    It should be perfectly clear — Those with a healthy regime, where immune systems are strong, are the ones most likely to be unaffected by this cold virus.

    It is extremely annoying that the authorities still measure cases, and make them such a huge part of the rules they put in place, when we all know the tests used are a total waste of time, being so inaccurate.
    Deaths, hospitalisations and hospital recoveries are the statistics we should be seeing – anything else borders on being criminal.

    …and when are we going to see less spent on adverts to keep us scared – If the Chancellor were serious about cutting costs – and he doesn’t seem to have much heart for it, then he would slash the advertisement budget!

    1. Lester_Cynic
      August 7, 2021

      Bryan Harris

      + 100

  14. Walt
    August 7, 2021

    Sir John,
    We know that the official figures in the UK were distorted and maybe are still being so. Probably the official figures of other countries also are untrustworthy. So what will we learn from a comparison of our distorted figures with their dodgy ones?

    1. JoolsB
      August 7, 2021

      Exactly. Absolutely nothing. What country in its right mind would make the figures look worse than they actually were as happened under Johnson which at one point made us the pariahs of the world. Fall out of a plane or get run over by a bus but if you happened to test positive for covid 28 days before then hey that’s what you died of. Meanwhile countries like Russia were doing the very opposite and suppressing their figures even refusing to put COVID on the death certificates of state workers especially doctors and nurses to avoid compensation.

      1. Mitchel
        August 7, 2021

        We can now see what the Russians were doing during their (one and only) lockdown last year;year-on-year births in Moscow are up 15% ytd-and a whopping 48% in May!I read elsewhere that the anticipated baby boom in the UK has failed to materialise.

        Incidentally,the number of abortions across Russia has also fallen by c40% over the past five years.

      2. Everhopeful
        August 7, 2021

        Maybe a country that wanted 100% jabbed?
        The more deaths the greater the fear = desperation for jab.
        Still had to employ much carrot and stick though.
        What’s the prize for 100% compliance then?

      3. Micky Taking
        August 7, 2021

        Prof Ferguson might be mortified ( sorry) that his ridiculous spreadsheet full of nonsense assumptions did not get vindicated with hundreds of thousands of deaths, hospitals being labelled morgues, a sniff becoming Covid ETC.

    2. X-Tory
      August 7, 2021

      The only statistic which can be trusted is that of ‘excess deaths’. All the others are manipulated, inasmuch as different countries record thimgs differently, and the infection tests are very inaccurate. Excess deaths (by population size) will tell you how well each country has done. This will relate to not just Covid deaths but also deaths from other causes which were not treated because hospitals were closed to those patients.

      It’s difficult to find up-to-date data on this, but from the figures I’ve seen the UK is the second-worst performing country in the G7 (after the US), and one of the worst in the world (though marginally better than some comparatve countries like Belgium, Spain, Poland and Bulgaria). One of the best performing countries in the world was Sweden – perhaps we should have copied their approach?

      1. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        Yes, and for the UK excess deaths are around 200,000.

        1. THUTCH
          August 9, 2021

          That’s a fantasy for which you have no evidence.
          Based on a 0.92% mean death rate, the true number for 2020 is 62,000 and here’s the ONS evidence;
          2015 602782 65110000 0.93%
          2016 597206 65648100 0.91%
          2017 607172 66040200 0.92%
          2018 616014 66435600 0.93%
          2019 615455 67530172 0.91%
          2020 686000 67886011 1.01%

      2. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        PS, Copying Sweden’s approach would have required the UK *people* to have had the same responses as Sweden’s, not merely to have been subjected to the same rules.

        To have expected that would have been rather fanciful.

        1. Peter2
          August 8, 2021

          Then stop comparing the UK’s covid figures to any other nation MiC because, as you say, none can have the same responses.
          Or does your logic only apply to nations who have results which contradict your views?

          1. MiC
            August 8, 2021

            Sweden’s approach was basically to leave it ALL to the people.

            However, they are one of the most civic-minded and informed societies in the world.

            They are, in this regard, something of a special case then.

          2. Peter2
            August 8, 2021

            Special case…look at North and South Dakota

          3. Micky Taking
            August 9, 2021

            Martin,
            I remember visiting Sweden several times, decades ago, including the outskirts of Stockholm. I was surprised to often see ‘bag-people’ for want of a better term checking bins and collecting aluminium cans. When asking contacts about this they shrugged and basically said they survive and collecting things like that to sell on was a public service. It was also a grateful gesture to take a bottle of strong scotch/gin/vodka whatever, to thank hosts for any assistance. It was due to very limited hours of opening in shops, rather like a limited off-licence, except the cost was clearly much higher. So- a special case? yes.

  15. Nig l
    August 7, 2021

    Yes. Cummings right again about the need for things to be data driven. Instead we get Shapps/Johnson etc winging it. On a cost benefits basis no one in their right mind would condemn hundreds of thousands to house arrest just because they were ‘close’ to someone infected.

    Isn’t it strange that Boris in the close confines of a plane just happened not to get close enough to have to isolate when other plane loads make no such distinction. As Camilla Tominey says in an excoriating of Boris and another piece about the lies spun relating to the need for testing, double standards everywhere.

    We now see Ministers scurrying about looking to ‘stop rip off’ testing companies. Why did it take so long. Because they are not if this planet and couldn’t care about anything except their political hides. It looks as if we are going to get some comparison BS. We want the price to be forced down.

    Why aren’t the lateral flow tests accepted for holiday returnees when they are undertaken by hundreds of thousands for other purposes?

    Simple this deceitful government is using the exorbitant cost to prevent family holidays abroad, ‘through the back door’.

    We knew Boris was economical with the truth when we elected him but didn’t realise it would be so brazen and accepted by his MPs who by association are similarly tainted.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      August 7, 2021

      And masks.

      “You’re free not to wear masks but it is a sign that you *disrespect* others if you don’t.” is the message.

      And thus those going bare faced are becoming as stigmatised as someone who might go butt naked in public.

      Masks are going to become a permanent part of our culture. Ye Olde Days are over.

      This IS the New Normal.

      Not even Orwell predicted soggy face masks.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      August 7, 2021

      Good points. Some time ago, I contacted the NHS 111 service. The operator, in error, thought I was showing signs of COVID, so I was ordered to attend a test centre for a PCR test, and then stay at home until I had the result, which came quickly. And if I were in the final stages of a holiday in safer-than-the-UK Greece, with no symptoms? A test before coming back and a PCR test after my return. This does not compute!

  16. Everhopeful
    August 7, 2021

    When ODL has vanquished death by covid how will he keep the rescued?
    In a pumpkin shell?
    Oh no
I’m forgetting the, how many million (?) with very serious neglected diseases languishing on waiting lists
and the tens of thousands killed in the ( strangely universal) “care” home cull.
    And now the “freedom” jab is said to neither protect nor prevent transmission.
    Paving the way for more!
    The Pincushion Nation.
    Sick!

  17. Richard1
    August 7, 2021

    It seems to be clear looking at these data – and also at the data for the various US states – that there is no correlation between degree of lockdown and success in suppressing the virus. Excellent article the other day by the professors of medicine at Harvard and Stanford explaining why the Great Barrington approach would have been better, and objecting to the smearing and rubbishing of its many distinguished authors by, inter alia, Dominic Cummings. It also makes clear what utter nonsense is the idea that if only the U.K. had locked down a week earlier last March somehow that would have made a big difference. About 2/3 of the U.K. deaths have happened since the great Barrington declaration last summer, during which time lockdown has been implemented as an alternative.

    Meanwhile we see that Mr Sharma (and I assume all ministers, since they must have been aware of his activities) does not himself believe in the policy of quarantine after travel. It is reported that he has been to some 30 countries during this period of travel restrictions, 6 of which are on the red list. But not quarantined as others have to. He simply would not have done this if he actually believed in closed borders / restrictive travel and quarantine. (Leaving aside the humbug of flying around the world to talk about a conference on global warming, the main message of which will be everybody else needs to reduce their carbon emissions). I’m afraid humbug like this requires resignations.

    1. SM
      August 7, 2021

      +1

    2. X-Tory
      August 7, 2021

      Talking of Alok Sharma, we need to discuss what the government intends to achieve from COP26. These are the only possible outcomes:
      1. China and India agree to CUT their CO2 output (not just reduce the rate of increase) starting right now, in which case COP26 will – as perceived by the international media and political class – be a success.
      2. China and India do not agree to this, but offer some meaningless proises which the UK – as conference hosts – accepts and tries to spin COP26 as a success.
      3. China and India do not agree and the UK calls them out, creating a severe diplomatic storm.

      We all know that 1 will not happen. The UK’s response should therefore be 3, so as to organise an international anti-China movement, with sanctions and the like. This would be the perfect opportunity to put them back in their box, as it is obvious that they are becoming increasingly bellicose and aggressive regionally and, if successful there, will become a global threat. Unfortunately we can predict with almost complete certainty that the final outcome will be 2, since Boris is just so gutless.

      What is most amusing however is that by focusing on CO2 emissions, COP26 is a huge joke. If they ‘followed the science’ they would realise that other gases – specifically nitrous oxide, methane and the fluorocarbons – are much greater ‘greenhouse gases’ since although their emissions are much smaller by volume, each molecule is many hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of times more powerful in its effect than CO2.

  18. Everhopeful
    August 7, 2021

    Apparently 380 trillion viruses live on and inside our bodies.
    Johnson should buy some more PCR tests and get busy! (Only a few more ÂŁbillions).
    A positive universe of “cases” to discover.
    Just turn up the amplification and he can shut us down ‘til he finally achieves whatever level of destruction it is he seeks.

    1. J Bush
      August 7, 2021

      +1
      Sadly, it would appear Johnson is daft enough to try and pull a stunt like that.

  19. Narrow Shoulders
    August 7, 2021

    Probably not possible with the world data set but must be possible with the UK data set, who caught it? In what setting and who succumbed. What weights, BMIs and blood types ended up in hospital and what ethnicities?

    This kind of mining of the data can inform the (over) reaction to the next illness which travels from one place to the next by plane and then spreads.

  20. Christine
    August 7, 2021

    India is an interesting one. They have reduced their death rate massively. Of course, the media won’t tell the public this as they only like to report bad news. India issued Ivermectin to their population at the height of their outbreak. Could this be the reason for the reduction in deaths? Why is it taking so long for the trials of this drug to come back with an answer to whether it works or not?

    1. Mary M.
      August 7, 2021

      Christine, I presume your question was a rhetorical one? We all know the answer.
      The ‘vaccines’ were given Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) because there were not, apparently, any available alternatives. (Never mind that in the developing world Ivermectin has been used successfully and safely for other diseases for approximately 40 years).

      1. hefner
        August 8, 2021

        Yes, as an anti-parasitic medication, Ivermectin has been successfully used to treat worms in animals and river blindness in humans.

        For Covid the latest update I found (study to 26/05/2021, published 28/07/2021) is available at cochrane.org ‘Ivermectin for preventing and treating Covid-19’. The key message is ‘no evidence to support the use of Ivermectin for treating or preventing Covid-19 infection, but the evidence base is limited’.
        Also fullfact.org ‘Ivermectin for Covid-19 remains controversial’, 19/04/2021

    2. SM
      August 7, 2021

      I would be interested to know where your figures come from. Even a brief search revealed that the Indian authorities were saying 2 months ago that 1000s of deaths were not recorded, that India is regarded as the epicentre of the pandemic, crematoriums have run out of space, multiple corpses are floating in rivers, and some states are estimating their fatality figures are about 50% lower than the actual number.

      You will also have heard of the cases of black fungus infection following Covid – can you provide assurance that has not possibly been activated by the use of inappropriate and unapproved medication?

      1. Christine
        August 8, 2021

        I’m looking at the Worldometer graphs for India.

        1. hefner
          August 8, 2021

          Funny that, the Worldometer graphs for India (using Ivermectin) do not look much better, in fact look worse than the UK’s ones (not using it). If looking at the slopes, ie, the growth of both their total number of cases and total number of deaths, they are steeper than in the equivalent curves for the UK.

      2. MiC
        August 9, 2021

        The black fungus is associated with steroid use to suppress the immune system in cases of over response to the virus.

        It makes fungal infections more likely as a side effect.

    3. hefner
      August 8, 2021

      According to the Austin American Statesman, May 2021, ‘Fact-check: Did India’s Covid cases plummet after hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin use?’, Tom Kertscher, Conclusion: mostly false.

  21. Norman
    August 7, 2021

    Well said Mary – 100% agree.

    1. DavidJ
      August 7, 2021

      Indeed.

  22. Lisa
    August 7, 2021

    Here is the real state of covid play. SAGE admit that 70% of “breakthrough” cases are fully vaccinated. Israel and Australia say it’s 95-99%.
    The illnesses are caused but the completely untested and very dangerous gene therapy claimed to be a vaccine.
    You and your colleagues have done more harm to this country than any government in history and that includes Napoleon Bonaparte’s and Hitler’s. Gross negligence is the very least you could possibly be charged with in a just world. Lucky for politicians we don’t live in anything approaching a just world.

  23. jerry
    August 7, 2021

    As the saying goes, there are Statistics, Lies and Damned Lies…

    No one who tested positive for CV19 here in the UK and died on the 29th day or later since that first test are counted, the official UK figures are a (political) fudge.

  24. Lester_Cynic
    August 7, 2021

    I’m always staggered by the numbers of clinically obese, mostly women, when I’m out and about, literally digging their graves with their teeth, and usually with an equally plump offspring in tow, will it be suggested that they should be denied treatment on the NHS as has been mooted for the unjabbed?

    1. Bryan Harris
      August 7, 2021

      The State doesn’t understand what is going on but still acts like a Nanny — The socialist welfare state we are now a part of requires that people don’t think for themselves, and as such their purpose in life is lost – they seek pleasures through eating – while the State tells them what to do and how to behave.
      In this the State psychology has been most expert – just seems it cannot get the messages out about obesity, perhaps it has not focused its psychology departments fully on that aspect of our lives?

    2. Loz
      August 7, 2021

      When will the unvaccinated receive their NI refunds if they are to be denied NHS treatment? This substantial minority will simply set up its own parallel ‘freedom’ economy and exclude vaccinated people. Lawyers will be very busy.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      August 7, 2021

      It is also proven that smoking is a lot more likely to kill you than a bout of Covid but smokers aren’t banned from the NHS either.

      Smoking is almost certain to kill you if you do it.

  25. Fedupsoutherner
    August 7, 2021

    Well IF its true that obesity makes you less likely to survive Covid then it’s hardly surprising the UK didn’t fare as well as it could have. Compared to some countries we are very unhealthy.

    1. J Bush
      August 7, 2021

      Whilst I agree there are a significant number of obese people in the UK, I am still waiting for an explanation from the Johnson regime why the healthy and those at little risk, i.e children need to be cajoled or blackmailed into having this experimental gene therapy? Especially given the data coming out now is evidencing, it is these youngsters who are having the worst adverse effects from having it.

    2. Lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      Certainly it does seem to be true. Risk factors seem to be being male, older age, blood group A, being bald for men, darker skins (perhaps low vitamin D possibly caused by this), obesity and some other medical conditions.

    3. Micky Taking
      August 7, 2021

      It is remarkable how many people in the NHS various departments are over-weight, possibly obese.

    4. THUTCH
      August 9, 2021

      Obesity will make you more likely to die of anything.

  26. Mark
    August 7, 2021

    We know that the quality of the statistics is generally poor, and variable across time and geography in rich and poor nations alike. That makes comparisons of detail very difficult.

    One chart I did back in March, after a year of the virus, compares death rates with PPP GDP per capita. It seems to show that being poor is one way to avoid covid. People who do not travel don’t transmit the disease.

    https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9WwxR/2/

  27. Nota#
    August 7, 2021

    In reality it is the open border policy that is the main difference – the UK is for an Island so leaky it is unreal.

  28. Mark
    August 7, 2021

    I see that the Climate Change Committee has never even attempted to estimate the cost of transition to Net Zero, and has managed to overwrite its spreadsheet estimate of the extra costs in 2050 – i.e. ignoring transition costs. On this basis Parliament has committed the nation to impoverishment and unknown trillions in spending.

    I pointed out the other day that the CCC is far and away our most costly quango. It should be abolished forthwith, and no pensions paid to its members who have deceived the country. The whole process of decision making needs to be revisited, starting with cancellation of Net Zero.

    1. DavidJ
      August 7, 2021

      +1000

    2. Micky Taking
      August 7, 2021

      ‘The whole process of decision making’?
      Do you mean Carrie ‘ this is what you need to do’ — Boris ‘yes dear’.

    3. Lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      Headed up by a rather elderly history graduate Chairman (with no real grasp of climate or science) and with vested interests (that he doubtless fully declares) but is this declaration alone sufficient? They are trying to piss ÂŁtrillions down the drain after all.

    4. Lifelogic
      August 7, 2021

      +1

  29. L Jones
    August 7, 2021

    The bottom line is ‘excess deaths’. Many of us have seen FOI figures from councils in England that show in 2020 the figures for burials and cremations were more or less the same as in the previous five years. So where were the bodies of these 125,000 ‘covid deaths’ buried? In plague pits?

    1. bigneil - newer comp
      August 7, 2021

      LJ – regarding number of deaths – had a funeral director say – where are the govt getting their figures from, we are no busier than normal – – something wrong from the start, Nurse threatened with her job for saying she knew one had died of other problems – had to “shut up”. The stupid “within 28 days ” saying – – though already proved to be misleading – is still broadcast by the covt propaganda machine – the BBC.

      The govt have lied from the very start – – and don’t know how to admit it – only by making things worse by more lies – and making us pay for massive number of illegals.

  30. Colin
    August 7, 2021

    Curious that you don’t mention Sweden at all, Sir John. Is it too much of an embarrassment to the government?

    Reply Not at all and I am not trying to shelter the government. Sweden’s figures are within the EU range, better than Belgium, worse than Germany.

    1. THUTCH
      August 9, 2021

      I curious too John. You’re an economics graduate and you fail to even talk about excess deaths!

  31. J Bush
    August 7, 2021

    I seriously doubt the ‘experts’ who came up with the gem to test school children twice a week, in order to keep the ‘cases’ high, took account of the following and factored a reduction of these anomalies into their totals.

    It is common knowledge school children used orange juice to get a positive result, as a means to legally ‘bunk’ off school?
    Why is a test required to tell you, you are ill with a virus, when you have no side effects?

  32. Nota#
    August 7, 2021

    Weird isn’t it – A letter in todays Daily Telegraph from the Archbishop of York is able to articulate simply how flawed the Johnson administration is. From it, it makes us all beg the question who and what does this Government represent and who does it work for. A clue is given in the observation on the Governments attitude to the people of the UK – London “metropolitan elite” for treating people who are proud to be English as “backwardly xenophobic”

    Then elsewhere Boris as if to highlight his ineptitude, attributes his silliness in his punishment of the UK people with his weird ‘Great Reset’ agendas by trying to suggest Margaret Thatcher would agree with him – forgetting it is only his shallow clique of acolytes that is remotely in need of this self flagellation. Elsewhere in the MsM it was picked up on the fact that this PM and his team want to spend, spend, spend so as to be big on messaging a green agenda without ever suggesting how its going to be paid for. Mrs T had the burden of addressing the problem of over taxation and balancing the books – and succeded. Boris J is nowhere near comparison, he has set on a path of destroying what’s left of the UK, indoctrinating a Socialist agenda with it inevitable high cost and taxation, destroying prosperity and future – just for the sake of a grandstanding virtue signal.

    Its all to sad to be real.

  33. forthurst
    August 7, 2021

    Why is it that people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 have to behave as though they have not been vaccinated and why are there reports of people who have been vaccinated becoming sick with Covid-19?
    Are the vaccines effective or not and if not are they are all equally ineffective or is the AstraZeneca vaccine which is a conventional vaccine, effective, and others which purport to create immunity by an immune response to the spike protein itself less so?

    I have had two AstraZeneca jabs and I have no intention of receiving any more just because a vaccine manufacturer has managed to persuade the government it is necessary.

    Is this about public health or helping pharmaceutical manufacturers’ bottom line? Creating a virus and the vaccine to protect from it seems like the perfect business model.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      August 7, 2021

      +1

      We are told that it is imperative for our freedom that we take the vaccine and so we take it.

      When we ask for our freedom they tell us the vaccine isn’t good enough.

      Now they try and scare us with three deaths of anti-vaxxers out of millions of them. Look. We reluctant vaxees know that there is an outside chance that we might die without the vaccine.

      I too will not be taking a third shot.

    2. Paul Cuthbertson
      August 7, 2021

      FOLLOW THE MONEY.
      The real conspiracy theorists believe that their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure them.

    3. Loz
      August 8, 2021

      AZ vaccine is not a conventional vaccine. It contains spike protein DNA inside an adenovirus vector. It’s gene therapy.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        August 8, 2021

        Another stupid claim. There is no justification for these claims.

  34. G.Wheatley
    August 7, 2021

    In addition to your very sensible suggestions Sir John, we also need to bring both the number of PCR tests conducted, AND the cycle threshold that those have been conducted to, into the equation.

    Whilst doing that, we should [b]also[/b] consider the level of vaccination uptake in those countries.

    There are many things that contribute to this, and they ALL need to be considered, analysed and conclusions made therefrom, REGARDLESS of whether we like the results of those analyses, and whether they fit with what the various ‘experts’ and advisors think they know.

    It is long past the time when we needed to start to look at all of this objectively, rather than ‘spinning’ the numbers to suit a policy. And some countries have definitely been doing that……….

  35. Andy
    August 7, 2021

    I visited the National Covid Memorial Wall a little while ago.

    It’s just a plain looking wall outside St Thomas’ Hospital – overlooking the Thames, opposite Parliament.

    And on this wall people have drawn hearts – mostly in red and pink – and have written the names of their loved one who have died during the pandemic.

    I don’t know how long the wall is. A quarter of a mile – maybe more. I do know it is a powerful symbol about the failure of politics. Because the primary duty of any government is to protect us. And the Brexitists failed. The failed to protect us. The wall is a testimony to their failure.

    The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Leader of the Lib Dems are among a few hundred politicians who have called for the wall to be made a permanent tribute to those who died during the pandemic.

    Every MP, every Lord – should be forced to walk along it. They should understand what happens when they get it wrong. The decisions taken in the building opposite are sometimes life and death decisions. Many MPs treat their jobs as a game. The wall shows how very wrong this Brexitist government got it and the human tragedy they caused.

    Reply Where is the EU wall going to be to record their 750,000 CV 19 deaths? How big a failure was that?

    1. Micky Taking
      August 8, 2021

      The biggest wall was in Berlin …..just saying.

    2. G.Wheatley
      August 9, 2021

      Andy, you mean a bit like the memorial to the victims of the St. Mary’s Virus in the Museum in London, in the 2005 film “V for Vendetta”?

  36. Roy Grainger
    August 7, 2021

    It is hard to do this analysis when the key scientific players in the UK are currently desperately covering their backs in books and newspaper articles in anticipation of the public inquiry. But it is interesting, for example, that the consensus view from our “experts” is the first lockdown came too late when those countries with really hard fast first lockdowns like Poland simply delayed the deaths and ended up with more than UK, whereas Japan with no real first lockdown at all, shops and schools always open, ended up with far fewer deaths.

  37. Sakara Gold
    August 7, 2021

    The problem is that each country counts their Chinese plague virus cases and fatalities differently, so it is not possible to compare like with like. The BBC website posts three sets of figures for fatalities, using different criteria. Many favour the set that records whether “Covid” is mentioned on the deceased’s death certificate by their doctor. On that basis, we have lost ~153,000 souls to this pestilence, the worst total in Europe.

    And in some totalitarian juristictions such as China, N Korea, Russia, Brazil or Belarus the authorities are plainly lying.

    Countries that have done particularly well include Australia (~1000 deaths) N Zealand (26 deaths) Taiwan (~800 deaths) and Singapore (27 deaths)

    These countries are mostly islands whose governments closed their borders right at the begining and who then went for the zero virus option. They imposed highly restrictive lockdowns – enforced in Australia’s case by the military – and who had well developed testing cabilities.

    Here in the UK our government has shambolicaly stumbled from “too late” lockdowns to “too early” lockdown ends – organised by Whitty, Vallence, Hancock, Harding and Johnson, allegedly “following the science”

    We have never treated the virus with the respect it deserves. Even now, as PHE reports that the Delta variant can infect the double jabbed and they can then superspread the virus unsymptomatically for at least 5 days, Javid has tinkered with the Test and Trace App to make it less sensitive. In order to appease the Tory press and “solve” the pingdemic “problem”…..

    The NHS reported yesterday that about 40% of those hospitalised with the virus have been double jabbed. We are in for a very bad winter.

    Reply You need to express deaths per million to say anything interesting. On this basis Hungary, the Balkans, Peru etc have the worst figures.

  38. DavidJ
    August 7, 2021

    It would indeed be good to hear from some real experts rather than those in, or advising, government who do not justify the claim that they are “experts”.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      August 8, 2021

      What ‘real’ experts? They all proclaim to be experts and tell us something different. I’m just using my own judgment now.

  39. agricola
    August 7, 2021

    I am not too fussed about comparisons worldwide because everyone measures with a different ruler. What really concerns me is the shambolic way we are now handling it at home. I assume that now vaccination is approaching completion all aspects surrounding Covid are now back in the hands of politicians with predictable results. We have one minister demonstrating that you can run around the World having been double vaccinated. He has naturally , being a minister, set aside all the travel restrictions burdening the rest of the population who might wish to travel internationally. The isolation or hotel incarceration at great personal expense, the CPR tests at added great expense. The minister has proved the vaccination works so why are the rest of us being ripped off. Leaving out Liz Truss who seems to be doing a sterling job at nailing down trade agreements, the rest of our ministerial staff confirm their unimaginative bordering useless progress in their them and us world. Books are waiting to be written covering their protracted failures. Only three years to go.

  40. S Johnson
    August 7, 2021

    and its been proven the vaccines are full of toxic graphene

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      August 8, 2021

      It has NOT been proven. In fact it’s been tested and does not contain graphene. It’s just another case of ridiculous scaremongering. The sample sent to a Spanish professor was from an unknown scourse and the university involved wants nothing to do with the so called findings. The sample has since been independently tested and other random samples from known Pfizer batches of vaccines and none contained graphene. I wish people would stop putting out this nonsense.

  41. genocide
    August 7, 2021

    John, why is there a gov contract out for 3 BILLION pounds worth of anti blood clot medicine ?

  42. Donna
    August 7, 2021

    How about we widen the comparison to include:
    1. The state of the country’s economy following the country’s Covid response
    2. The overall health and well-being of the population (including both mental health and physical health, such as increased deaths from treatable diseases such as cancer and stroke).

    I fully expect that the UK would fare extremely badly if we include:
    1. Covid deaths
    2. The state of the economy
    3. Mental health of the population
    4. Treatable conditions which the National Covid Service decided to ignore

    Sweden took the right approach. Our Government didn’t and has behaved appallingly.

  43. glen cullen
    August 7, 2021

    I still can’t understand why this government records covid-19 deaths within 28 days of positive test and not just those deaths recorded as deaths by covid-19 on death certificate
.and I understand that every country in the world records these deaths differently 
..I have no confidence in any of these world figures

  44. David L
    August 7, 2021

    The official statistics from anywhere are so unreliable, with so many vested interests and scientists and politicians covering their backs, that us lay folk have to be cynical. Search online and you will find “experts” with all the right qualifications supporting any opinion you care to mention. It’s the shutting down of any opinion that doesn’t accord with the official narrative that is so worrying. Science ain’t science any more without debate.

  45. Barbara
    August 7, 2021

    At this stage, I have to say that in my opinion the best thing SAGE could do would be to issue a public apology for the harms they’ve caused and resign en masse, letting a completely new cohort of scientists take over who would be made to wield much less power.

  46. Bill B.
    August 7, 2021

    SJR – Talking about the number of ‘cases per million’ is almost worthless, because the amount of tests carried out varies hugely across countries. I read that Britain has recently been testing nearly as much as the rest of Europe put together.

    To deal with that problem, I look at the so-called ‘infection rate’ per number of people tested. Leaving aside that the tests don’t actually detect infection, let’s assume they at least tell you something. Britain’s rate is like most European countries – around 3%. South Korea and Japan are currently above 5%, the level the WHO takes as showing the epidemic is ‘under control’. So it doesn’t seem to follow that countries with low Covid death rates have the lowest ‘infection rates’.

    In the end, to see ‘how well countries have done’, the best measure may be overall death figures from all causes, which governments can’t really fiddle all that much.

  47. Iago
    August 7, 2021

    Has there been one post-mortem examination of a person who is supposed to have died from this disease?
    Has the virus been isolated?
    Those people, who have had the second dose of a vaccine and have become ill, have they caught the virus or is it the vaccination itself which has made them ill? Is this being investigated or ignored?
    Why are younger and younger people and indeed most people who do not get the disease being vaccinated?
    Who has decided that we must have a digital electronic identity?

  48. a-tracy
    August 10, 2021

    Who believes government based statistics anymore?

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