In that steady stream of bad news about Scotland, Reporting Scotland staff manage once again to ignore the vaccination successes, the falling hospital admissions and the falling infection levels. There has been a rise in the number of death certificates mentioning Covid as a possible, maybe, contributory factor:
It’s just anecdotal but several relatives have now contacted me to cast serious doubt on this process, some even suggesting some kind of future funding benefit to be gained from inflating these figures.
A bit titchy in the wider context of the last 16 months, but hey knock yourself out, Pacific Quay.
As the public service broadcaster with a charter to inform, might you have told them this?
Real, confirmed, deaths now falling after a very small increase in the wake of cases plummeting.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Now we out of EU
Where a reporting system of deaths was set up at the behest of the UK
Which was intended to be a early warning sign of adverse or unknown causes of death
As each death. Cert.has 2 entries,1 for primary cause The 2nd for contributing factors
Scotland is sticking to this system
Whilst England only reports deaths from
Covid as being 28 days of a + positive test
Experts estimate the real no.of deaths in England is over 200 k from covid
Weasel actions from a weasel government
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BBC Scotland’s viewers/listeners/readers – the target audience for the ‘news’ featured in the above blog post – might have been interested also in being given broader, relevant context.
This is readily supplied using data from the UK government’s web site – so it must be authoritative! It comes from comparative mortality data during the whole pandemic for each of the four nations up to dates earlier in July and on both of the measures in official use. (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths )
1) Deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate by nation to 9 July 2021 (the list is ordered by data per 100,000 population):
Wales: = 7,873 (249.7 per 100,000)
England = 130,957 (232.7 per 100,000)
Scotland = 10,204 (186.8 per 100,000)
Northern Ireland = 2,981 (157.4 per 100,000)
On this measure, for the pandemic to this date, Scotland’s rate per 100,000 is c. 29% lower than England’s.
2) Deaths within 28 days of positive test by nation to 11 July 2021:
England = 113,320 (201.3 per 100,000)
Wales = 5,590 (177.3 per 100,000 population)
Scotland = 7,820 (143.1 per 100,000)
Northern Ireland = 2,166 (114.4 per 100,000)
On this measure, for the whole pandemic to this date, Scotland’s rate per 100,000 is c. 20% lower than England’s.
Of course in any such comparative assessment it is important to remember (at least) two critical factors: (i) only England has a government with untrammelled powers; and (ii) the people in three of the nations – not England – receive a constant diet of media (including BBC) messaging on public health matters aligned with that framed by another government i.e. by the Westminster (and England’s) government. Why is England not the least impacted by the pandemic given all these – what should be relatively more favourable to England – factors?
It is deeply regrettable that such an analysis of tragic issues seeks amplification here but it is done of course to help counter the agenda-driven politicisation of health and social care that is much more prevalent and acute in Scotland as demonstrated over a long period of time here on TuS.
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Great post Stewart
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