Sorry friend but I'm not an admirer of Barclay Bros publications generally and I suspect their Spectator gossip columnist who did the job on Ferguson is actually Charles Moore - his ideological preferences are pretty well known.Agree with a lot of what you say George but that is unmitigated bollocks. I read the Spectator specifically because it gives a platform to alternative viewpoints without the vitriol which would accompany dissenting views in social media. It helps to keep an open mind.
COVID-19. Serology and death data from NYC quite compatible, though you do have to allow for NYC population being younger than most of the US.
Best,
Neil
Thank you for putting that material together. Much appreciated.Responsibility in the main resides with:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care/about
In particular through its framework with:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...ework_agreement_between_DHSC_and_PHE_2018.pdf
Which results in informing the management:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/board/members/
to deliver its:
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/
I personally think that it is really disappointing that some people's (hopefully only a few and certainly not aimed at you) need to apportion blame becomes their primary focus.
I guess if people simply must identify individuals to blame then you will find some on this organogram:
https://assets.publishing.service.g...ata/file/827548/PHE_Leadership_organogram.pdf
Afterall they have amongst their remit the responsibility to:
"...….. This means providing the national infrastructure for health protection including: an integrated surveillance system; providing specialist services, such as diagnostic and reference microbiology; developing, translating and exploiting public health science, including developing the application of genomic technologies; investigation and management of outbreaks of infectious diseases and environmental hazards; ensuring effective emergency preparedness, resilience and response for health emergencies, including global health security and work on antimicrobial resistance; acting as the focal point for the UK on the International Health Regulations; and evaluating the effectiveness of the immunisation programme and procuring and supplying vaccines...."
and:
".....Improve population health supporting sustainable health and care services through, for example: promoting the evidence on public health interventions and analysing future demand to help shape future services; working with NHS England on effective preventative strategies...……"
Personally I am in the camp that does not need to vent (or invent) frustrations to try and drag people down. I think that this is simply a global emergency and when such a thing occurs it will always be possible to use the convenience of hindsight to apportion blame - if you are so minded
I have answered your question here - because this is where it was asked - but I would suggest that any further discussion occurs in the Covid political thread - which I have still not gone through to catch-up on the 3 weeks of absence.
The link I posted with graphics a few posts back shows 100% increase over the usual level of deaths per day (all causes).Has anyone claimed it to be 100%, daily, continuously, or otherwise? the figures i have seen range between an increase of 2-3% higher than corredponding quarters. Which, don't get me wrong, im not trying to diminish the impact of, is still terrible, any increase in death however small is. But it isnt as extreme and the proportionality of the extremity of the measures and impact is a valid question to consider. It is a balance, and i give the country credit for recognising that and the difficulty in walking that fine tight line.
Sweden is an interesting one really. When you look apply some of the other data that may have been missed off the modelling.
sweden has a very sparse population, approximately 25 per square Km, compared to 270 odd for uk and 400+ for England. That is a natural social distancing the UK can’t do.
they have a very introverted nature. Touching is generally not a done thing in public so again a natural social distancing.
add onto that the fact that a lot are self isolating anyways.
one thing I heard that I have not had verified tho is the sweeds tend to leave the nest young. So you don’t have older generation being infected by the younger who are still out and about.
My thoughts exactly on this, all those people going in because they stubbed their toe etc or wanting paracetamol because they can’t go to Asda for a 24p pack it was bloody ridiculous. If you phoned 999 they basically had to send an ambulance even for the most trivial shite. Get the cancer patients back and those that really need it ( I don’t include the IVF and other such stuff that should be paid for privately), oh and cull a lot of those shit managers who have contributed to a lot of past bad spending.Don't want this to come across wrong, of course anyone who needs NHS help should get it, but if we can create a culture where far fewer people waste everyone's time clogging up A&E with things a GP or Out of Hours can sort, the better. We need to re-establish walk-ins during this time and try and correct what in the past 2 decades has been a needless crushing of our A&E departments.
Shame we don't have a government that can spot opportunities like this in the "downtime", before everyone goes back out partying again and cramming our essential services up.
You want an open society but don’t want anything questioned that your government experts peddle? Resistance is useless. As for your stock Momentum response. Really?Unlike many supporters of repressive regimes on here I am committed to an open society. Its enemies btw include several Spectactor contributors - who occupy the right/left point of totalitarian intersection in classic (if currently unfashionable) horseshoe fashion. If you find succour in the absurd and unfalsifiable theories churned out by Momentum etc I suppose that explains why you keep recycling their ordure .
Yeah, read all the same too. While I don't agree with Sweden's approach personally, it's just not really comparable with the UK's situation. Worlds apart, context-wise.
Correct in a number of ways - although the case would have been that DHSC and the NHS Board were making balanced judgements on where to prioritise procurements/readiness - so, as a potential example, prioritising known shortages of key medicines, to stockpile PPE would also have left them open to criticism.The U.K. went through a pandemic testing exercise in 2016 and failed miserably. One of the failures was PPE. Since then stocks have reduced or become out of date. Whilst you can’t know the exact nature of a pandemic there are many things you can prepare for. We didn’t and to compound that our eventual response was at least a month late. No amount of ww2 rhetoric from the government and applauding the Nhs should hide those simple facts.
'Your' government? It is 'our' government even if you didn't vote for it. It is 'our' government's experts trying to guide us and 'our' country that is coming apart at the seams and 'our' families and friends that are dying in this nightmare. Trying to engage in ancient Brexit feuds at a time like this is strictly for Momentum duped juveniles and I'm genuinely surprised you are posting such rubbish.You want an open society but don’t want anything questioned that your government experts peddle? Resistance is useless. As for your stock Momentum response. Really?
It’s a good job you and your ilk didn’t question the experts on Brexit or people might have voted leave...