The research places some doubt on the value of daily government figures which cover only deaths of hospital patients.
Around half of deaths from COVID-19 are happening in care homes, according to data from some European countries.
Figures from five European countries suggest that care home residents have accounted for between 42% and 57% of all deaths related to COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said the lack of personal protective equipment and testing had allowed COVID-19 to "run wild" in care homes.
"The current figures are airbrushing older people out like they don't matter," she said.
Read the rest here:
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-around-half-of-covid-19-deaths-are-in-care-homes-11972850
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It's quite shameful what the government is doing. They aren't reporting the true number of cases and deaths in the UK due to Covid-19. Our government only counts the deaths in hospitals while care homes are reporting deaths due to Covid-19, some as many as 5 or 6 deaths within a few days of each other. On top of that, people are working in those places with no protection so when they come in contact with an ill person they inevitably infect others. The ONS figures seem to show that the true UK death figures are 34% higher than the government's figures.
Shameful.
Even more so as some people think the government is doing a good job or refuse to criticise the government as it is the one they support.
Half of COVID-19 deaths are in care homes
posted on 14/4/20
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 24 seconds ago
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 17 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Scouze Doggie Dog (U22357)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 35 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 43 seconds ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 45 minutes ago
comment by vidicthelegend VIVA LA REVOLUTION (U8735)
posted 22 minutes ago
Oh and for the record I think the government has got an awful lot wrong, but moaning for moanings sake doesn’t help.
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This is the understatement of all understatements. As every day passes we are beginning to see more and more the absolute mess that the UK government have made of this. It should be a national disgrace, but there will be those who ignore it and make excuses for it simply due to their political persuasion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Were you writing this at the time? Hindsight is a great thing. I do think it could have been done quicker, but they were taking advice not making it up.
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Yes I was actually. Living in the north of Ireland I have been in a position to compare and contrast the responses of the two local jurisdictions (Ireland and UK). And while the Irish response hasn’t been perfect, it is proving to to exponentially better than the UK response. While Boris was talking about herd immunity and bragging about shaking hands with people who were infected, other countries were closing schools, while the Irish officially didn’t go into lockdown till after the UK, we were de facto in lockdown almost two weeks before that (I work for a southern company and have been working from home for almost 5 weeks).
You say they were taking advice, but every other country was getting the same advise and very few, if any, interpreted it the same way as the UK. It has been a shambles from the start and to say anything less is blind stupidity tbh.
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As I'm a lefties I find it easy to criticise Boris & Co. The handshakes were bravado that nearly killed him. Still it is a fact that the chief medical officer and the leading virologist? were publically
giving advice. Also there were other countries following the same line or more Eg Sweden.
Unless you work in the field and have expert knowledge you are just following your media of choice, like everyone else.
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His comparison of countries is "following his media of choice?" That doesn't even make sense IMO. He made a factual analysis to which I don't see a real response. Why defend the indefensible?
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I don't understand your first line, but not to worry. The point I am making is.
Unless you have specialist knowledge, your opinion is is formed by what you read and hear, the media.
Boris & CO had to act before the media reported. So they followed the 'best advice'. Which turned out to be poor. Making the decisions is so much more difficult than criticising them.
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No it’s not based on media of choice, it’s based on simple, and very sad, facts. The UK has had 178 deaths per million, Ireland have 74 (bare in mind the UK figure does not include care home figures, Ireland’s does and it makes up approx 40% of that total). They are apparently at a very similar stage in the virus curve. There are only 7 counties in the world with a higher rate than the UK, and 3 of those are minuscule countries in San Marino, Andorra and St Maarten. But your right, my opinion is just based on the media I choose to read 🤯
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Also they had seen what happened in other countries, especially Italy which locked down too late and were allowing Chinese tourists in, for fear of damaging the economy.
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Exactly. In addition to the 3 I mentioned above Belgium, France, Spain and Italy are the others with with a higher rate of deaths per million. It’s widely acknowledged that Italy Spain and France were too slow to act, only two weeks ago the UK media were aghast at the numbers coming out of Italy, numbers which the Uk have now sadly passed. And again this is without care home figures. It is truly astounding that people are accepting this.
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True. The response in Ireland was one I hoped we would have taken but regardless we were behind the mainland in terms of cases and spread and therefore we locked down at an 'OK' time but still not perfect.
The mainland was too late, which went in line with the herd immunity approach they thought was acceptable at the time. As soon as they saw the crazy figures in Italy, that approach quickly changed, as it was already too late for containment.
Once this gets down to manageable levels, they need to bring in mass testing and isolating positive cases and when this is acceptable, the economy needs to get back on track.
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Yeah I think we in NI were also very slow to react as well, and when you take our figures on their one they are actually very alarming.
posted on 14/4/20
Does that mean the other half are in Don't Care homes?
posted on 14/4/20
comment by goadocwatson (U1016)
posted 3 minutes ago
Does that mean the other half are in Don't Care homes?
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https://bbc.in/2xj2KDy
posted on 14/4/20
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210271/BBC-bosses-warning-interviewers-not-ministers-pressure-coronavirus-crisis.html
Has anyone read this?
'The BBC in general is simply not prepared to take the government to task and hold its feet to the fire.'
Our press aren't doing their jobs properly.
posted on 14/4/20
"We're sorry that people feel we don't care"
posted on 14/4/20
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 52 minutes ago
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 24 seconds ago
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 17 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Scouze Doggie Dog (U22357)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 11 minutes ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 35 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 43 seconds ago
comment by DoireDevilBhoy (U10745)
posted 45 minutes ago
comment by vidicthelegend VIVA LA REVOLUTION (U8735)
posted 22 minutes ago
Oh and for the record I think the government has got an awful lot wrong, but moaning for moanings sake doesn’t help.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the understatement of all understatements. As every day passes we are beginning to see more and more the absolute mess that the UK government have made of this. It should be a national disgrace, but there will be those who ignore it and make excuses for it simply due to their political persuasion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Were you writing this at the time? Hindsight is a great thing. I do think it could have been done quicker, but they were taking advice not making it up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes I was actually. Living in the north of Ireland I have been in a position to compare and contrast the responses of the two local jurisdictions (Ireland and UK). And while the Irish response hasn’t been perfect, it is proving to to exponentially better than the UK response. While Boris was talking about herd immunity and bragging about shaking hands with people who were infected, other countries were closing schools, while the Irish officially didn’t go into lockdown till after the UK, we were de facto in lockdown almost two weeks before that (I work for a southern company and have been working from home for almost 5 weeks).
You say they were taking advice, but every other country was getting the same advise and very few, if any, interpreted it the same way as the UK. It has been a shambles from the start and to say anything less is blind stupidity tbh.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As I'm a lefties I find it easy to criticise Boris & Co. The handshakes were bravado that nearly killed him. Still it is a fact that the chief medical officer and the leading virologist? were publically
giving advice. Also there were other countries following the same line or more Eg Sweden.
Unless you work in the field and have expert knowledge you are just following your media of choice, like everyone else.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
His comparison of countries is "following his media of choice?" That doesn't even make sense IMO. He made a factual analysis to which I don't see a real response. Why defend the indefensible?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't understand your first line, but not to worry. The point I am making is.
Unless you have specialist knowledge, your opinion is is formed by what you read and hear, the media.
Boris & CO had to act before the media reported. So they followed the 'best advice'. Which turned out to be poor. Making the decisions is so much more difficult than criticising them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No it’s not based on media of choice, it’s based on simple, and very sad, facts. The UK has had 178 deaths per million, Ireland have 74 (bare in mind the UK figure does not include care home figures, Ireland’s does and it makes up approx 40% of that total). They are apparently at a very similar stage in the virus curve. There are only 7 counties in the world with a higher rate than the UK, and 3 of those are minuscule countries in San Marino, Andorra and St Maarten. But your right, my opinion is just based on the media I choose to read 🤯
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Also they had seen what happened in other countries, especially Italy which locked down too late and were allowing Chinese tourists in, for fear of damaging the economy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly. In addition to the 3 I mentioned above Belgium, France, Spain and Italy are the others with with a higher rate of deaths per million. It’s widely acknowledged that Italy Spain and France were too slow to act, only two weeks ago the UK media were aghast at the numbers coming out of Italy, numbers which the Uk have now sadly passed. And again this is without care home figures. It is truly astounding that people are accepting this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
True. The response in Ireland was one I hoped we would have taken but regardless we were behind the mainland in terms of cases and spread and therefore we locked down at an 'OK' time but still not perfect.
The mainland was too late, which went in line with the herd immunity approach they thought was acceptable at the time. As soon as they saw the crazy figures in Italy, that approach quickly changed, as it was already too late for containment.
Once this gets down to manageable levels, they need to bring in mass testing and isolating positive cases and when this is acceptable, the economy needs to get back on track.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah I think we in NI were also very slow to react as well, and when you take our figures on their one they are actually very alarming.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well yes but I think we had a better chance of 'getting away with it' due to the much smaller numbers. Of course the response was in line with the mainland response, although I do think the politicians here, for once, need to get some credit for working together and not fighting each other, just to be contrary and things actually getting done because of it.
I'm sure it will go back to normal when this is over.
posted on 14/4/20
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 15/4/20
One of the reasons for half of the deaths being in care homes may be because too many people can't be bothered to take care of their own ageing family. It used to be considered dutiful and not just a nuisance.
posted on 15/4/20
comment by goadocwatson (U1016)
posted 5 hours, 28 minutes ago
One of the reasons for half of the deaths being in care homes may be because too many people can't be bothered to take care of their own ageing family. It used to be considered dutiful and not just a nuisance.
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I beg your pardon?
Are you a Boris Johnson supporter by any chance?
posted on 15/4/20
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52103808According to the data, there were 210 deaths up to 20 March - the day that pubs and clubs were ordered to shut down to help tackle the outbreak.
That is 40 more than the official figure of 170 released at that time.
Currently, there are not enough tests to check how many people in the community are infected, or how many deaths are linked to Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
So while these provisional new community figures are important to collect and analyse to help better understand Covid-19, they can't shed much light on the true toll.
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Should have started lock down when we were getting reported a number of deaths. To have waited so long.