As of last night, there were 22 deaths from 719 cases giving a rate of 3%. The UK average rate with 433 deaths from 8 227 cases is 5.3%.
The rate in Italy has risen to more than 10% while in Germany it remains below 1%.
While more factors than we can measure will be behind these variations, I remain sure that the performance of health services must be one, and so NHS Scotland must be praised for what they have achieved in saving lives.
Some, especially on Twitter, have criticised both these data and what they think are my motivations. I’ve been accused of being ‘political’, ‘smug’ and, of course, of using meaningless statistics.
I realise that these comparative statistics cannot be considered wholly accurate indicators of the differences between the performance of health services but does anyone believe that 10 years of Tory austerity has not wounded NHS England and damaged its ability to deal with crises thus increasing the mortality rate? Does anyone not believe that there is a real difference in performance by the Italian and German health services?
As for ‘political?’ Of course. My main drives here are political. First, I aim to defend the reputation of NHS Scotland, with evidence, and by association the Scottish Government and by association the Independence movement. Second, I aim to refute the outrageous clearly political, infantile, and nauseatingly smug suggestion by Boris Johnson that Scotland’s public services had ‘issues of resilience’ going into the crisis. The evidence is already in.
It might clarify the differences between the four health services if you provided separate rates for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland rather than just Scotland versus UK, which presumably also includes the Scottish figures. That is, provided you have the separate figures available.
Best regards, John, you and your team so a great job. Your followers don’t always pass comments but we certainly appreciate your detailed analyses.
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Thanks
I’m a bit of a ‘cognitive miser’ (lazy).
How about doing that for us?
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John
Figures per Sky News at 3PM today:
England – 414 deaths and 7,973 confirmed casesScotland – 25 deaths and 894 confirmed casesWales – 28 deaths and 741 confirmed casesNorthern Ireland – 10 deaths and 241 confirmed cases
So ratios:
England – 5.2%
Scotland – 2.8%
Wales – 3.8%
N. Ireland – 4.1%
U.K. – 4.8%
NHS England’s updated figure due later
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Someone had better educate me in this time when dictionary definitions are reversing.
What is politics if it doesn’t include politicians and their policies past, present (and future) which keep their constituents alive in a healthy, just world?
That is the only kind of politics i am interested in, that and protecting and sustaining the environment which we have to live in.
Article in Guardian demonstrating how politicians have failed us.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/25/uk-coronavirus-policy-scientific-dominic-cummings
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Thanks you insensitive politico you. 🙄 I’m off to think something compassionate….nope….I give up.
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The bullshit litmus test (which John uses on an almost daily basis) and which i try to use on myself also, is: ‘what if it was the reverse?’ ‘What if it was England?’ or ‘what if was Corbyn?’.who said or did or didn’t do such and such.
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