Johnson’s government tops grim league table
Figures released by Amnesty International today show that Boris Johnson’s catastrophic handling of the coronavirus crisis has placed the UK at the top of a league of shame.
540 health workers lost their lives to COVID-19 in England and Wales. That figure alone, excluding Scotland and Northern Ireland, would be enough to stand at second-worst in the world, just five behind Russia – a nation with double the UK’s population – and well ahead of the US and Brazil, which have more than five times and three times the UK’s number of people respectively:
- Russia (545)
- UK (England and Wales (540)
- USA (507)
- Brazil (351)
- Mexico (248)
- Italy (188)
- Egypt (111)
- Iran (91)
- Ecuador (82)
- Spain (63)
But deaths in Scotland and Northern Ireland are more than enough to put the UK shamefully in ‘top’ position as the worst in the world.
Johnson’s utter irresponsibility on personal protective equipment, testing and tracing and his slowness to lock down have taken a horrific toll among our health workers – and have caused the needless deaths of tens of thousands of our people.
Yet he refused even to express regret when challenged last month – and is now planning to ‘thank’ NHS staff by reimposing hospital parking charges on them. Johnson should be in the Hague, not in Downing Street.
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Shameful, but expected when you have a bunch of cretins running the show.
My sister (An extremely highly qualified nurse, with 35 years experience) had the perspicacity to get out & go to Australia in 2010. All her family are grateful she did. While she misses blighty, she’s grateful Australia gave her a new home.
…And who could blame her? I envy nobody who has the means to leave; in fact, I actively encourage it. Hell, I even envy deportees at times.
Who – in their right mind – would actually want to be here, under these morons and the non-existent opposition?
Replace cretins with criminals, Toffee x
x? Get a room 🙂
David mcniven that x was an automatic response not an invitation, numpty….. I tend to message my family and children more regularly than I do reply to comments on here, so the x slipped out. Thanks so much for pointing it out in such a sweet way though
Change the language
Thousands have died because the cheap and nasty Tory party have a visceral hatred of the NHS
French maybe? La sédition! Vive la revolution!
Belmarsh can fill in for the Bastille very nicely.
Which begs the question
What was the last thought that passed through the minds of the Aristocracy as their heads fell into the bread basket
My contribution would be
‘I thought we were in charge’
“Stop, I need the toilet… uh, as you were.”
The Tories are simply pursuing neo-liberal policies. Blair initiated these murderous attacks on the NHS- the Tories never dared to be so open. And now Starmer would continue Johnson’s policies. The problem is capitalism, which dictates ‘saving’ by liquidating reserves, and teaches that some lives are not worth saving.
Until the Labour party is ready to mobilise the country against capitalism, as a system, it will never be an alternative, merely a fashion statement.
Incisive Bevin. Obviously true.
So it wasn’t G Brown (and his unadulterated neoliberalism) which ended capitalism’s Boom and Bust – it is pandemics, the very best way for the strong and super-rich to hoover-up surplus value (and wealth) without damaging capitalism’s reputation. 🤮
And remember, this is occurring in a world where neoliberal trickle-down already thrusts-up wealth and power to where there is already an abundance
So, indeed – masks don’t work. Pretty clear evidence if the figures are right.
Don’t be so fucking stupid – lack of masks is to blame, not masks, you pathetic buffotroll.
McNiven – You’re not as bright as I once thought.
The point is that the nappy fetishists have *less* evidence than I have to assert the ineffectiveness of face masks in the control of virus spread, given that health professionals have been wearing such (and of better quality) for some time.
The utter irrelevance of such fetishism to the spread of a viral infection (chain link fencing to keep out mosquitoes) that has essentially disappeared should be obvious to all but the terminally dim.
… but perhaps you have some weird religious need to hang on the word of Boris and Co. as a father figure of ‘The Truth that Passeth all Understanding”
I knew you weren’t from the first – never a doubt.
If you don’t wear a mask, sign a DNR,
Ah… the Covid enabled future revealed in one short terrifying phrase.
If you wear a mask – you’re probably brain dead already.
RH – You too will be wearing one soon
Wearing a face covering in shops and supermarkets in England is to become mandatory from 24 July.
Those who fail to comply with the new rules will face a fine of up to £100, the government is to announce.
The move will bring England into line with Scotland and other major European nations like Spain, Italy and Germany.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617
OK, McNiven, you’ve done your usual bluster schtick as cover.
Now – how about some argument, numbers and evidence?
… starting from the c. 1 in 10000 chance of meeting someone with Covid.
… then progressing on to the lack of any RCTs showing effeciveness inmask usage ….
Over to you
No, I can’t be arsed playing your stupid game on your terms.
Thinking people know that truth spreads almost instantly in scientific and academic circles – It’s why the internet was born after all.
Belief in your ‘truth’ hasn’t spread as it would have had it been valid.
Explain to my satisfaction why that is and if your explanation holds water you’ll have a new convert.
You won’t do that though because you can’t – you’ll just hark back to the obscure Swiss doctor you worship as the fount of all knowledge – despite the lack of support for him from the rest of the scientific community.
Coronavirus can remain airborne for more than an hour, SAGE expert warns
Prof Wendy Barclay of Imperial College London warned Covid-19 ‘can remain viable’ in very small droplets in the air – not just surfaces that you touch
Coronavirus could remain airborne in enclosed spaces for more than an hour after you breathe it out, a top government advisor warned today.
The stark comment by Wendy Barclay comes despite the government refusing to make face masks compulsory in England’s shops.
Michael Gove claimed people should use their “common sense” about wearing coverings over their nose and mouth indoors.
The government has focused on the dangers of touching surfaces that are contaminated with virus.
But Prof Barclay – who belongs to scientific advisory group SAGE – said there was mounting evidence the virus could be spread in an airborne way too.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We do know that… the virus that causes Covid can remain viable, remain infectious in these very small droplets.
“So that raises the possibility and indeed the likelihood that Covid can be transmitted through these small particles that can trace through the air.
“Laboratory studies where the virus has been purposefully put into the air tell us that the virus can remain there for more than an hour in its infectious form.”
It comes after a World Health Organisation report said so-called “aerosol” transmission “cannot be ruled out”.
In a major shift, the WHO said “much more research is needed”, but that droplets “could explain human-to-human transmission” in some cases.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-can-remain-airborne-for-22342528
I’ve said that since day one – I used the analogy of paint spray remaining airborne in still air for half an hour to prove that aerosol transmission was possible.
I also stated unequivocally that being in the wrong place downwind of an infected person outdoors would be a risk equal to being in a room with that same person.
The UK clearly needs some new experts.
And a new government please – the one we were cheated out of twice will do nicely, thank you.
FFS – You currently have to meet about 10000 people at random to even come across 1 that has this virus.
Beyond that, you currently have a chance of 1.5 million to 1 (on average) of dying from such an infection.And if you’re under 65 and have no other illness, your chances of dying are almost zero.
Get a grip and stop knicker-wetting. Then you won’t need a nappy.
Took a tax-free lump sum and invested it in a restaurant-sports bar did you, dearie? Poor you.
I am mystified as to why all the arguments on face masks.ITs self evident that the Conservative and unionist party along with advisors have a lot to answer for.ITs now looking likly that the government will be challenged in the Courts for their part in the murder of the elderly and vulnerable.We can also hope that an inquiry will be motivated by the Court action,hopfuly we will invite your MPs and the so called opposition to do something about this terrible tragedy and punish those responsible for abandoning our elderly and vulnerable people in care homes..
Ah but, but, but ‘Save the NHS’ is all that mattered… everyone told to clap while NHS staff at work made dancing and ‘fun’ videos to put on internet platforms and a huge section of the public clapped and cheered as their Grannys and Grandads were put in care homes under blanket DNRs with no family or other independent advocates seeing what was actually going on in care homes and NHS facilities where staff ‘do as they are told’… now where in not too distant history have we heard that excuse…
By the way, that photo for the article shows a ‘nurse’/carer with talons… nails had to be kept short years ago to prevent cross infection and scratching patients.
If masks are so vital to stop community spread then why wasn’t mask wearing mandated and being called for by ‘opposition’ and medical ‘experts’ in March/April when deaths were at their peak? Shutting the stable door reeks of flexing authoritarian control, social training rather than genuine well backed up public health measures to me and of course far right Johnson regime is loving flexing its authoritarian muscle with zero opposition.
The suffering and deaths of people with cancer, heart disease etc. caused by ‘saving the NHS’ aka shutting it down except for Covid will be a reckoning for many years to come… privatised, slimmed down NHS will never, ever catch up so how many thousands are going to suffer and die unnecessarily? Who cares so long as everyone wears a face nappy like Corbyn, Johnson, Sturgeon and Trump… a role model for everyone.
There are approximately 1,300,000 full time and part time staff in the NHS as of March 2020.
Approximately, 18% of the staff are over the age of 55-64 and 4% are over the age of 64 in England. 11% between 55-64 are medical or dental staff and 2% are over the age of 64. 20% of the consultants are between 55-64 and 3% are over the age of 64.
As of September 2018.
https://www.nhsemployers.org/-/media/Employers/Documents/Plan/DIVERSITY-AND-INCLUSION/EQW19/Age-in-the-NHS-infographic.pdf?dl=1
Monthly sickness/absence rates for December 2019 was 4.86%, January 2020 was 4.80% and February 2020 4.51% for the NHS in England. The statistics for absentee sickness rates only goes as far as this date for the NHS in England. If anyone has the latest, please post them.
Amnesty quoted the figure of 540 unfortunate deaths in the NHS for England Wales. Which is about 0.000416% of the total workforce. However, Amnesty have just given the raw data without any breakdown of age, job description whether the tragic fatalities had any other serious illnesses and how many succumbed solely to Covid -19.
brianbotou – On the figures you give the percentage of deaths is 0.0415% not
0.000415%.You forgot to multiply by 100 when you did your % calculation.
There’s some seriously confused thinking on display here – equating the wearing of face masks with authoritarianism when the Tories were pooh-poohing their use by the public for months to disguise the fact they had none to provide.
Some of you people remind me of the “sandbox kids” at infants’ school – the ones who preferred sand to books and football to everything.
Steve H, 8.25 pm. If the fatalities rate in the UK is about 1% or less and the fatalities rate in the NHS is about 0.0416 then taking 1.0% as the top end minus 0.0416= 0.9584 of difference. 540 fatalities is tragic but out of 1,300,000 and not having the age, whether they had other serious illnesses or other died soley of Covid 19 it needs to be put into perspective.
Remember its 540 tragic fatalities out of 1,300,000.
Any idea how NHS workers unfortunately died before retirement in 2019, 2018, 2017?
brainbotou – I was simply correcting your maths If you want to do further pointless research then please fell free to knock yourself out, its your time you are wasting.
Steve H, research is never a waste of time. It’s always important not just to look at the raw data but also the facts that it comprises of. Hence why it would be interesting to look at age, whether they had previous illnesses, what exactly their job was within the NHS.
For example, in the years 2011-2018 between 81-107 health professionals tragically took their own lives. All the unfortunate people were between 20-64. Which illustrates how stressful working in the NHS can be.
brianbotou – Well thanks for the lesson in virtue signalling, Do all the research you want but the fact will remain that there are several hundred NHS & Care staff who are now dead who would still be alive if they hadn’t caught Covid-19.
“Research is never a waste of time” – except when it consists solely (not ‘soley’, teacher) of the search for other conspiracy fucktards who support one’s own ridiculous preconceptions.
Conspiracy theory” is a pejorative applied to ideas which challenge an official narrative; people interested in them are termed “conspiracy theorists”. This usage stems from the US deep state’s efforts to promote the “lone nut” theory of the JFK assassination. The concept was later developed into a general purpose enemy image used to try to prevent the connection of deep events that the commercially-controlled media presented as isolated incidents.
https://wikispooks.com/w/images/9/9a/Always-you-with-that-conspiracy-stuff.jpg
I can see you are one of the flock. Meh🐑🐑🐑🐑
Reading the posts here on the Covid myths explains why the Tories won the last election.
Backing Tory policies and Fairy Stories isn’t the most convincing opposition.
(And not being able to do basic sums doesn’t help, either)
Oooh – I must get a mask, too in case the next person I meet is the 1 in 10000 that *might* have Covid.
… besides which Boris the Brexit and HandCock said so – so it must be right.
RH – You too will be wearing one soon
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617
I’m interested that you seem to relish the shouting of ‘Sieg Heil!’ and raising the right arm to the Tory junta, Steve.
Do have a re-think.
Actually, I’ll be getting out one of my my keffiyahs and dark glasses as a piss-take if I have to for practical reasons. Also, for the aware, black face-nappies are great backgrounds for inventive slogans. 🙂
This could be fun for true socialists.
RH – I’m puzzled by your Hitler reference, it is not a connection I would have made.
Hmm, if you think if 81-107 dead NHS personnel from suicide over a 7 year period is “ virtue signalling “ which is according to the Cambridge English Dictionary ‘ indicating that one has virtue merely expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings. ‘ I would talk to your doctor.
The figure is a raw data figure which gives no information concerning age, 18% of the NHS in England are between the ages of 55-64 and 4% are over the age of 64+.
In addition, it gives no data as whether the fatalities had any serious illnesses and how many of them were solely from Covid-19. It also gives no breakdown in the jobs they had within the NHS eg Health workers can be clerical workers, ambulance drivers, porters, nurses, doctors, consultants etc.
The NHS issued an article on the 2nd of June stating that 95% of the Covid-19 fatalities in the U.K. had two or more serious illnesses and provided data indicating what they were, therefore, 5% died solely from Covid-19. It also showed the majority of the fatalities occurred in the over 55 + age grouping.
Since the Amnesty figure of 540 NHS deaths in England and Wales does not provide this data, it is not giving the full picture.
brianbotou – That’s strange because my copy of the Cambridge English Dictionary says this on the subject of virtue signalling. You appear to be making a habit of truncating quotes to suite your own purpose.
“virtue signaling – an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media:
•Virtue signaling is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favor for certain political ideas or cultural happenings.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/virtue-signaling
This might come as a revelation but words and phrases can have multiple meanings!!
brianbotou 14/07/2020 at 8:36 am
Are living in La-La Land? I’ve just pointed out to you that you had edited out definitions as well as truncating the definition you half quoted. The only surprise to me is that you are stupid enough to think you can get away with such deceptive and dishonest nonsense.
brianbotou – All suicides are of course tragic but there are other employment sectors with much higher rates of suicide
Main points•
There were 18,998 suicides in men and women aged between 20 and 64 years between 2011 and 2015, which constitutes a rate of around 12 deaths for every 100,000 people per year; for around 7 in 10 (13,232) of these suicides, an occupation was provided at the time of death registration.
•Males working in the lowest-skilled occupations had a 44% higher risk of suicide than the male national average; the risk among males in skilled trades was 35% higher.
•The risk of suicide among low-skilled male labourers, particularly those working in construction roles, was 3 times higher than the male national average.
•For males working in skilled trades, the highest risk was among building finishing trades; particularly, plasterers and painters and decorators had more than double the risk of suicide than the male national average.
•The risk of suicide was elevated for those in culture, media and sport occupations for males (20% higher than the male average) and females (69% higher); risk was highest among those working in artistic, literary and media occupations.
•For females, the risk of suicide among health professionals was 24% higher than the female national average; this is largely explained by high suicide risk among female nurses.
•Male and female carers had a risk of suicide that was almost twice the national average.
•Females within the teaching and education profession had a lower risk of suicide but specifically for primary and nursery schoolteachers there was evidence of an elevated risk.
•Individuals working in roles as managers, directors and senior officials – the highest paid occupation group – had the lowest risk of suicide. Among corporate managers and directors the risk of suicide was more than 70% lower for both sexes.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/suicidebyoccupation/england2011to2015#main-points
Amnesty international was referring to deaths in the NHS as I was. Not in other occupational areas.
brianbotou – Perhaps this illustrates why you would be well advised to consider evaluating your ‘research’ in a wider context so that you can maintain a sense of perspective..
Steve H. 8.36 am. Are you now denying words and phrases can not have more than one meaning ?
Are living in La-La Land? I’ve just pointed out to you that you had edited out definitions as well as truncating the definition you half quoted. The only surprise to me is that you are stupid enough to think you can get away with such deceptive and dishonest nonsense.
RH
I hope you get it.
I really do.
I hope you die gasping for breath.
I think you’ve proved my point about the nature of stupid ignorance amongst the Boris backers.
As a long time socialist, however, I wouldn’t wish you dead.
Health wise…….RH…I wish you well and you have a point on civil liberty’s and the abuse of the virus.to further the Tory agenda “devastation” .and a economic apocalypse..But the smart attitude and insults of Socialists is nothing’ but fear of the inevitable consequence of the Conservative and unionist party win.You must “get a grip man” and settle down and keep your ammo for the establishment knight and the Tory vermin.
Joseph – Given the standard of living you are privileged to enjoy in Cambodia it is somewhat selfish of you to prioritise damaging the Labour Party’s electoral prospects over defeating the Tories.
Joseph, forget for the moment that Tories are against civil liberties, which they are – the only freedom they’re for is the freedom of their neoliberal friends to exploit and abuse us and they’ll exploit anything they can including CV19 – we all know that.
However, enforcement of distancing, masks, lockdown etc is necessary to save lives.
At least three counts of criminal negligence and their incompetence throughout doesn’t alter the fact that until a vaccine is available we have to surrender some of our freedoms for the common good.
That’s socialism – the good of the many – not authoritarianism.
When a Labour government has to deal with a pandemic it too will enforce quarantine because it saves lives – I hope they’ll do it infinitely more effectively but enforce they must until such time as universal education has made enforcement unnecessary.
Joseph – They may also wonder why a bloke who is privileged enough to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in Cambodia is so obsessed about Keir Starmer’s knighthood that he got for being DPP. (just like every other DPP before him since the post was created in 1880.)
They will also wonder why someone in his position is so keen to deny them a Labour government to satisfy some selfish petty personal obsession whilst he’s safely insulated from the results of another Tory win.
Who could blame them for wondering why some old duffer who lives on the other side of the world wants to destroy their life chances,
SteveH, on “destroy[ing] their life chances” – the biggest objection to overcome when ‘selling’ socialism is always “Well Labour did bugger all for us last time.”
I’m sure others share my fear that if Starmer should win a GE he’ll be another Blair – a pale imitation of the Tories that will make Labour’s name mud for another generation.
If by some miracle he gained power tomorrow what would change from the last ten years?
It’d be policy review after policy review followed by a little nudge here and a tiny tweak there, maybe a couple of quid on UC, half a percent on Corporation Tax and call it “Job Done!”
You KNOW that.
If he had anything resembling an original idea in his head we’d have heard it.
Nothing less than full-on socialism will do – nothing less will redress the balance and stop the 1% owning everything including us.
It’s deceitful to pretend Starmer’s wishy washy “centrist” neoToryism offers any kind of benefit to the many.
My God…
RH, I wouldn’t bank on posters like “different frank” being a “Boris backer”…
Our younger posters and propagandists might not remember that a knight in shining armour came to rescue the Labour Party and increase its electoral prospects. Unfortunately, he and his cabal turned the party into a NeoLiberal lite party and with his legacy almost destroyed the Labour Party. His New Labour Party was of course dispatched to the dustbin of history. The new knight in charge of the Labour Party appears also to be on a right wing trajectory!!
Steve H. 15.07.2020. Note right at the top of the page on this thread …Deaths amongst Health workers . Still having problems with your reading comprehension.
Still using your inaccurate headline. Not ‘UK’ but ‘England and Wales.’
It’s not inaccurate, though. UK is worst in the world if Scotland is included. The fact that the majority of the deaths are down to Johnson and co is explicit in the article.