Why is UK one of the worst hit?

Witzend I don't know how accurate they are either. It seems that the UK death rate doesn't include people who have died in care homes or at home, but that could be the case for other countries too. The OP is "Why is UK one of the worst hit?" - not the worst hit. It would appear that the UK is one of the worst hit and we are still a couple of weeks behind countries such as Italy and Spain on the trajectory.

The interesting country is Germany and I hope there will be serious investigations into why its death rate is so low. It could be that deaths are counted differently, but even if they are, the difference is still very significant.

For the moment, I don't think comparisons should be the priority. I think we should be looking at ourselves and asking serious questions about whether we are doing all that we can for us.

There's never been any forward thinking of any sort in this country, not for anything.
Look at the way immigrants were allowed to flock in----where were they all going to live and work ? It beggars belief.

We weren't prepared in any way and that's the beginning and end of it.
Unlike Taiwan who'd been rehearsing for years in preparation for an outbreak---what have we been doing ? Sweet FA, so what does anyone expect ?

Oopsadaisy.I agree totally. A relative of mine and her partner came straight back from travelling just before lockdown via several major airports and immediately visited other family .No isolation period.And then the visited relatives were going to go to see our mum who is in her 90s.Until I stopped them .They are all educated to degree standard, one a former health care professional.The irony of the fact that they couldn't join the dots as far as our own families safety exasperated me. Especially as one of them continually posts on FB about the shortcomings of the government and how they aren't doing enough to protect us.

According to the Coronavirus Worldometer, our CV deaths per 1m of population number 156.
The Netherlands total is 165, France 221, Belgium 337.
Spain and Italy are up in the 300s.

How absolutely accurate these figures are I don’t know.

It’s about time we stopped blaming the Government for the actions of individuals, ALL people coming into our airports know that they should isolate, ‘I wasn’t told to, so I didn’t ‘ isnt good enough.
We now have to take responsibility for ourselves.
People who come back in from abroad and don’t immediately isolate should be held responsible.
There are a load of things that didn’t happen when they possibly should have, the so called experts have been shown to be not so expert after all, but from the very start we had to take our own precautions,
I am pretty certain that if I or my DH get it then we will die, we both have chronic Asthma, I’m on about 20 puffs of my inhaler at the moment and I wouldnt last very long, so we are self isolating and it’s our 5th week, it’s a pain and I’m afraid I have no sympathy for anyone who flouts not only the current restrictions but who then blame it on the Government, we aren’t children, it’s time to man up.

JE read the time line then say that the government acted well.

I do think that if they'd listed to the WHO though JE, that we may not have the sheer number of deaths.

The herd immunity comment was illuminating. I think they're probably seeing the error of their ways now, but too late.

And as for accusing the NHS of using too much PPE and shifting the blame onto the population for breaking the rules, well. Despicable.

It’s very easy isn’t it to sit at home and insist that the government should have done this or that but the fact is not one of us is an expert, so all it can be is an individual opinion.

Even the experts, the scientists can’t agree on the best tactic to deal with this new virus and that may well be the case in every country.

Do all the Swedish experts agree with the policy there of keeping restaurants and bars open for instance?
Probably not.

We won’t know anything for certain until this awful situation is finally over, but every country is faced with a balancing act of minimising the number of deaths, against trying to protect the economy from a nightmare scenario.

Hear, hear WWM.

qq our health service isn’t free!!

How could the government ignore what was unfolding in Italy? The doctors were pleading for us to lockdown. Staff were posting in deep distress with faces raw from their PPE and our policy was business as usual.

You all seem to be praising the actions of a country (Germany) which operates an insurance based private health system which 'seems' to be superior, while at the same time wanting free for all state funded health care for yourselves. If the economy is ruined, there will be no money to pay for anything for our overpopulated country, then you will all complain when taxes and VAT go up.

growstuff I agree about the tfl or other transport workers. I thought from the beginning that I if I do have to go to the shops rather than get things delivered (which is still difficult) I would go to the local shops and get what I can rather than get a bus to the supermarket because it just does not seem fair to use the bus just to go shopping.
The driver in the US who was filmed complaining about conditions 4 days before he was taken into hospital where he died, said that people were jumping on the bus just to go one or two stops. The number of bus drivers that have died in London was 5 a couple of days ago and 33 in New York. There should have been restrictions introduced such as only being able to go if you are travelling more than 2 stops unless you are unable to walk and having to wear a mask. I haven't even heard any recommendations for travelling on buses.

planes still landing every day ,I saw a post yesterday on FB for people who had travelled on a flight from Alicante last week.One of the passengers is gravely ill with CV and they are trying to contact as many as they can.Shouldn't have been happening if they just took precautions and stopped everyone as they came in for testing and put them in quarantine for 48 hours.It is herd immunity ,the numbers on public transport are still too high and one person coming from the airport can infect many on that journey .Lets hope Bojo's illness means he sees sense ...but I doubt it .This was always the plan

Couldn't agree more Fiachna50. Complete mismanagement. They don't know what they're doing and won't listen to those who do.

Its only my personal opinion but I think we had the same attitude to Coronavirus as we did to Ebola. It won't happen here. We missed Ebola by the skin of our teeth and I think its down to arrogance. Also Cheltenham, Crufts, concerts and other large events went ahead which to my mind was utter madness. No checks at airports and flights still going all over the place. Why, I don't know. Scientists still don't know enough about Coronavirus and are largely dealing with the unknown.

What keeps me firm about the lock-down is being over 70, living near a major conurbation where I recognise that, even in normal times, the service provided by the NHS is patchy, sometimes brilliant and sometimes not. I don't need to feel the horror. My main task is not to drown in the flood.

I like the Covid symptom tracker updates for more uplifting news. It does balance out the horror. But for me (maybe not others), I need to feel the horror. Because it's what keeps me firm about total lockdown.

There will be a reckoning but, hopefully, a balanced one taking in all of the information that ultimately will become available. At the moment, the data is partial and subject to revision and possibly not strictly comparable between countries. The clinical date is possibly less than complete too as it would inappropriate to divert health professionals away from anything other than tending to the living.

The wheel is, as they say, still in spin. As of now, the data we have shows that half of the people who have died in the UK with the virus have been over 80. Most are over 60. Almost half have died in London or the Midlands, areas which include two very large conurbations. London accounts for 25% of all UK COVID-19 deaths: it has a population of 9 million people, substantially higher and more concentrated than either Denmark or New Zealand. Time will tell what element geographical, cultural, ethnic, age, physical fitness and maybe other factors have influenced the way this emergency has worked out. Political decisions will rightly examined and judgements made but, hopefully, on the basis of knowledge, albeit with hindsight.

Personally, I find all judgements now inevitably half-baked and lacking the full information, often made for transparent party political motives. I suspect I am not alone even though in a minority on GransNet.

I find this from the BBC interesting on a daily basis. For what it is worth, it includes a comparison of selected countries from an analysis by John Hopkins University.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

Ignored the World Health Organisation's advice is basically why. We were told to test, test, test. And also contract trace. The countries that have done that are those with low rates. The ARROGANCE. I'm getting angry now. It's better than fear.

Our lockdown isn't working because it isn't a lockdown. People are out and about everyday. NOT that I'm blaming the population. Our leaders are to blame. They are getting tested. They are getting world class (still NHS) medical treatment. They are lying to us. They did not do what they were told to do because they couldn't, because they knew they had denuded the NHS and they knew it couldn't handle it.

I hate them. I don't say that about people. Ever. But in relation to this I do. The British populace have been sacrificed to the greed of the people that are supposed to be our representatives.

Acted too late. Listened to experts who said that the population would not tolerate restrictions. Fancied the herd immunity theory. Thought that chucking the elderly under the bus would be better than trashing the economy. The Reuters report covers it in detail.

Yes I agree jane but Germany and us are more more comparable overall. As for the persistent rumour that Germany records deaths differently, I still have not seen one reputable source that confirms this. Rather, I see people using it as a sort of comfort blanket because they don’t want to face the fact that we are not dealing with this well. I’m not saying I know about Germany just that I’ll believe it when I have evidence.

It is tragic that so many people have died, and so many more desperately ill, because politicians refused to listen to advise.
Scientists said lockdown earlier, test, trace, isolate.

But they said they knew better.

There will be a reckoning.

It will not be forgiving.

Oopsadaisy3 - I've heard that too, that Germany has a different and more accurate way of recording deaths during this pandemic.
The UK is recording deaths of all people with the virus, although they may not have died from the virus.