You can not help but be however when I actually look at the data it's just a bad 'flu year, and is dwarfed by Spanish 'flu.
The graph compares death due to respiratory illness through the last century and more. 1918 is on there, but so is the rest of the twentieth century. Why are you comparing life down the pit and trenches to 2020? Look at the 1990s before we had the 'flu jab.So are you up for working down the pit and defending a trench in Spain or Belgium. Things have moved on a bit over the last 100 years.
I don't think of it that way so much, more of an anti English region thing. You will find people in the midlands and the south west that feel just like the north that they are left out of things. Its more i think a result of the London centric bias of every political party and this has been exasperated by devolution where the English regions have been left even further behind.Oh come on you can't deny the divide surely?
The North has always and will be always be treated with contempt from the Tories.
They don't care.
Other half tested positive two weeks ago, still rough and coughing her lungs up, given the all clear to get out and about on day 10, I'm still in isolation until Sunday, 4 day incubation period, definitely puts you under the cosh, especially with me having a chronic lung condition and heart failure, struggled since the beginning of the virus and sadly the local surgery aint arsed.Without wanting a polling fest,wondered about a poll asking who has had it,who has had it in the immediate family ie partner,children gransparents / children / Or nobody close . Thought it might give some rough idea how many have had experience of family cases.
I would advise extreme caution when interrogating graphs like that. For instance:
1. The way deaths are categorised may have changed
2. Flu has been essentially wiped out by social distancing this year
3. COVID would have been much worse had we not imposed the restrictions we did.
"We averted disaster" does not imply "COVID is just bad flu"
I don't think of it that way so much, more of an anti English region thing. You will find people in the midlands and the south west that feel just like the north that they are left out of things. Its more i think a result of the London centric bias of every political party and this has been exasperated by devolution where the English regions have been left even further behind.
I’m not totally clued up on my history, but I thought the reason the Spanish flu was so deadly was firstly that it mutated into something horrific but also that nobody wanted to introduce quarantine or lockdown etc as it would have halted the war effort.This is an aside: The annual deaths due to flu, covid or pneumonia since 1901 from the ONS. It's not new and no doubt it has been discussed many times before.
It's worth looking at again for historical perspective and to consider how this compares to 'normal' 'flu epidemics.
Spanish 'flu is completely off the scale dwarfing Covid.
I ask myself and you why the world has been gripped by this because in terms of death it is significant but not really that unusual. You have to think though what it would like if the world did nothing. I think the horrifying thing for us is the fear that our parents get it but we don't have the same national reaction with 'flu.
Is the response to Covid19 rational? I include myself in that as I am caught up in it as much as anyone else.
You can argue that it's because the death is carried by one social group the elderly but isn't it always with respiratory illness?
Might have already been mentioned, but a good watch on BBC2 last night at 9pm on the 1918 spanish flu. There seemed to be a lot of factors that made it so deadly, an obvious one being lack of medical expertese in viruses and pretty much no treatment for it. You got it, you were at its mercy and all that the doctors and nurses could offer was palliative care. Added to that there was very little lockdown or quarantine and its deadliness was kept quiet as it was war time and people were under enough strain.I’m not totally clued up on my history, but I thought the reason the Spanish flu was so deadly was firstly that it mutated into something horrific but also that nobody wanted to introduce quarantine or lockdown etc as it would have halted the war effort.
An unchecked Covid-19 would have resulted in a very significant spike in that graph.
A ‘normal’ flu season also doesn’t have lockdown measures within it. It doesn’t seem a worthwhile comparison to look at Covid-19 WITH lockdown and social distancing and normal flu without all that. And to then throw in Spanish flu which was during the war and some 100 years behind in terms of epidemiological knowledge and healthcare. The circumstances are so radically different.
2. - i think it has been largely effected by those susceptible to flu succumbing to covid, statistical switcheroo to some extentI would advise extreme caution when interrogating graphs like that. For instance:
1. The way deaths are categorised may have changed
2. Flu has been essentially wiped out by social distancing this year
3. COVID would have been much worse had we not imposed the restrictions we did.
"We averted disaster" does not imply "COVID is just bad flu"