The daily rates of cancer and heart disease are 34 times higher than the rate due to Covid.
Almost 1,000 British people per day are dying of two diseases — neither are Covid-19
The daily rates of cancer and heart disease are 34 times higher than the rate due to Covid
Death rates ‘with Covid’ have been rising again, albeit from a very low base. The latest 7-day average of deaths is 37.6 per day. I have reviewed the same data doctors can see when they read their journal ‘The Lancet’ and once again I present Covid-19 deaths in proportion and in context.
I know from the Office for National Statistics that the number of ‘Covid deaths’ is always overstated. In the last four weeks for which data is available, the ONS says the number of deaths ‘due to Covid’ (i.e. with Covid as the underlying cause of death) was an average of almost 25% less than ‘with Covid’. In other words, the current 7-day average daily deaths figure will not be nearly 38 per day, it will actually be around 28 per day.
Here are the Lancet’s figures for the cause of death in the UK
(Figures are daily averages for 2017)
- Cancer 493
- Cardiovascular diseases 484
- Alzheimer disease and other dementias 175
- Chronic respiratory diseases 130
- Lower respiratory infections 101
- Digestive diseases 81
- ‘Due to COVID-19’ 28 (Current 7-day average)
- Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases 25
- Parkinson disease 20
- Chronic kidney disease 19
- Suicide 16
- Diabetes mellitus 15
- Drug use disorders 8
- Road injuries 7
- Alcohol use disorders 6
- Neonatal disorders 5
- Diarrhoeal diseases 3
- Fire, heat, and hot substances 2
- Tuberculosis 1
- Interpersonal violence 1
- Drowning 0.9
- Meningitis 0.8
- Environmental heat and cold exposure 0.8
- HIV/AIDS 0.7
- Poisonings 0.4
- Nutritional deficiencies 0.4
- Protein-energy malnutrition 0.3
- Hepatitis 0.2
- Maternal disorders 0.2
- Terrorism 0.1
Together, cancer and heart disease account for nearly 1,000 deaths per day in the United Kingdom. A further 175 per day die of dementia/Alzheimers. And another 230 die from respiratory disease and respiratory infections unrelated to Covid-19. These major killers alone total over 1,380 deaths per day. The current 7-day average of daily deaths due to Covid-19 is 28 per day.
When it comes to Government Covid policies, it really doesn’t matter what you think about face masks, lockdowns, social distancing, vaccines, the NHS, wildly inaccurate forecasts from ‘scientists’, or even Boris’s most recent disastrous haircut.
One thing we can surely all agree upon is that the policies pursued by the Government, informed by ‘the science’ and translated into laws or stern ‘guidance’, have been inconsistent, contradictory, often ill-conceived, rushed, delayed, hypocritical, and frequently downright daft. One of the worst things from my point of view is the lack of proper evidence for any of the measures taken, and the complete lack of any cost-benefit analysis being carried out on anything.
If the UK had been a company in a competitive marketplace, its customers would have fled long ago.
Before readers think I am making some kind of party political point, I am not are not. The SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland and Labour’s Mark Drakeford in Wales are equally guilty. And in fact, this goes much further. Governments around the world have all signed up to this collective insanity in one form or another.
Did Covid-19 require a response? Certainly. Did we get a coherent one? Certainly not.
Back in February last year everyone had an excuse. Covid-19 was ‘new’. Time was needed to study it and what to do about it. (Even if pandemic response plans had already been worked out long before.) The problem is that we are now virtually 18 months into this, and the chaos continues.
Is it really too much to ask that Governments get a grip, demand solid and up-to-date information, and present coherent strategies based on the threat of Covid itself and the threats to our way of life (and life itself) from any measures proposed?
[ Sources: The Lancet | OWID |
