Well I Never!

[royfromaus]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11491871/Chris-Whitty-warns-Britain-faces-prolonged-period-excess-deaths.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top

[New Judge]

Strange that when people (including me) warned of this eventuality and suggested that the government's strategy was not, perhaps the right way to go (particularly as no pandemic in history had been approached in such a way) we were howled down as "granny killers".

Well I never, indeed.

[naomi24]

I never too.

[bobbinwales]

Well I suppose we don't know how much higher excess deaths would of been without lockdown and vaxes.
But am getting a bit dubious about excess deaths as there was a report it those massively due to austerity from 2010 and then from covid....it cant allways go up especially as we're living longer and have lots of new treatments

[davebro]

at least we saved the NHS

[douglas9401]

The Minister For Statin' The Bleedin' Obvious.

[10ClarionSt]

The lockdown was unnecessary. I said it then and I'll keep saying it now. The average age of people who died due to covid was 80. That was because they were neglected by the govt. The vast majority of deaths was amongst people who had one, or a combination of, heart disease, dementia and Type 1 diabetes. The figures for all of this were available at the time, so don't ask me for a link because it just turns into
yeah but no but yeah but no but......

[New Judge]

//Well I suppose we don't know how much higher excess deaths would of been without lockdown and vaxes.//

I think we can leave vaxes out of the equation, bob, because they caused nobody any harm (discounting the very few deaths that might - might - have been attributable to them). but they certainly prevented many people from contracting serious illness and dying.

But as far as lockdowns go, the fact that we don't know what the result would have been without them is not a very scientific way to assess something that caused so much harm and is hardly a ringing endorsement. The questions that still haven't been answered - and in some quarters not yet even asked - is why was this pandemic treated so differently to any other in history and why was this country's well rehearsed pandemic plan, which involved no lockdowns and which was endorsed by the WHO, suddenly dumped within less than a week of us being told it would be followed? Couple that with the experience of Sweden (who exercised no formal lockdowns to speak of) and China (who still are) and you can see why these questions need to be asked.

//at least we saved the NHS//

Did we, dave?

[Deskdiary]

Ah, yes, I remember those Covid threads well...

I can remember saying the lockdowns were unnecessary, I can remember saying the cure was worse than the disease, I can remember saying to the Covidians be careful what you wish for because paying people to sit on their backsides and all the other money splashed around with gay abandon would have to be paid for, and I can remember being called a Covidiot, selfish, granny-killer and a few other choice things for having the bare-faced temerity for stating such heresy.

Whitty's comment is a perfect "No siht Sherlock" example.

[Kardashev]

On balance I agree that lockdowns were unnecessary. The concern was that the NHS would be overwhelmed but in practice they had thousands of unused beds in the nightingale temp hospitals so it does look unnecessary but of course it's always easier with hind sight.

[New Judge]

//...but of course it's always easier with hind sight//

But government ministers and experts are paid to have foresight and anyone with any sense could have foretold what would happen if the pandemic was dealt with in the manner it was. There's one simple question: it was never done like that before, so why was it done now? And the answer "because we can" (Zoom etc.) is not valid. You don't do things as serious as locking the country down and closing businesses because you can. You only do them if you have to. And we didn't have to.

[ToraToraTora]

Yep bang on judge, it was a sop to the jobsworth types who love lock down and wanted it to continue as long as possible so they could boss us about!

[youngmafbog]

Well, well well.

So us Coviidiots, tin foil hatters and anti vaxxers (even if we had it) were right.

I remember being pilloried by the Covidians for saying exactly this, nothing would deter them from their religion.

//but of course it's always easier with hind sight//

No hindsight needed for this one, it was as plain as the hole in your backside if you had an open mind.

[New Judge]

Yes, youngmaf. I also recall being absolutely pilloried for suggesting that lockdown was not necessary. Even if you accepted that it might have been at the outset for a couple of months, it most certainly went on for far too long and the furlough scheme (which has contributed heavily to the country's financial woes) was an absolute disgrace. Couple this with the efforts many senior politicians made to disguise their booze-ups as "work related meetings" and it was clear that they saw no need to comply with the measures they had imposed on everybody else.

I recall seeing a whiteboard used in one of the government's "brainstorming" sessions when they were deciding how bwest to "control" the virus. One of the captions on there was "who do we allow to die"? Well the answer is now obvious - anyone who didn't have Covid.

[Hymie]

The prolonged excessive deaths the UK is about to suffer can be fairly and squarely blamed on the current Tory government with their compete mishandling of the NHS – this is just an attempt to deflect blame and offer up some nonsense rationale for the gullible public to swallow.

What with over an hour wait for an ambulance for a reported heart attack or stroke, more than 12 hour waits in A&E, and ambulances waiting many hours to hand over patients – who would think that there might be excessive deaths as a result?

[ToraToraTora]

so not the fault of brexit then hymie?

[Hymie]

No, the Tory government are fully responsible (no one else).

[Deskdiary]

Jesus a wept, Hymie, do you actually read what you’ve typed before you post?

I’m not convinced you do, because if you did you’d realise you spout utter nonsense.

[Hymie]

OK – It’s Labour’s current mishandling of the NHS.

[royfromaus]

The prolonged excessive deaths the UK is about to suffer can be fairly and squarely blamed on the current Tory government with their compete mishandling of the NHS
__________________________________
High rates of excess deaths are occurring all over the world, Hymie.

[Hymie]

OK – any failures in our public services (such as the NHS) has nothing to do with the government.

I wonder who ultimately is responsible for our public services (paid for with our taxes) if not the government?