andrew1957 I have to say that I continue to think that the fear over this COVID-19 issue is overdone.
I have just checked the Gov flu report which details flu deaths for the four years from 2014/15 through to 2017/18. An average of 21,155 died in the UK during these four years from flu including sadly a number of infants and young children, who had no pre existing health issues, but the vast majority of these deaths were for the over 65's - pretty much identical to COVID. Across the world between 300,000 and 500,000 die of flu each year but we don't shut down the global economy.
Some estimates suggest that there will only be around 20,000 UK deaths from COVID-19 which is less than in an average flu season. Of course I accept there is a small risk that it could mutate into something worse.
But overall - am I missing something?
Yes, you're missing something. We have a VERY tough lockdown and even so the numbers will finish very high. The lockdown in China (according to expert estimates) prevented (as of two weeks ago) 7 MILLION Cases. Without the lockdown that 7 Million would now be 50-100 Million.
Without the lockdown in the UK we would already be closing in on 10,000 deaths.
Not sure what the latest estimates are but all the experts seem to be saying:
1. This is NOT just flu, not just like flu
2. This virus is more transmittable, has a higher r (infection rate)
3. This virus is more deadly
Flu has a usual kill-rate of one tenth of a per-cent. This virus looks like being somewhere between 0.9% and 5%, probably 1-2%
If you have a virus that might be 20 times as deadly AND more transmittable you would be talking (without these Draconian measures) of many, many millions of dead, tens of millions.
This has a long way to go. So far Africa, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are lightly hit, South America is "behind" Italy.
Italy is currently on 217.9 deaths per million. It will finish on 500 per million or worse. Spain, "behind" Italy is on 194 per million, France (also behind) is on 62 per Million. Here are a few, and understand that many of these will ROCKET. The projection for the UK is that we WILL reach the same scale as Italy. (PS Italy has 4.1 Doctors per 1,000 population, the UK has 2.8 )
766 San Marino
218 Italy
194 Spain
181 Andorra
071 Belgium
068 Holland
062 France
053 Switzerland
046 Luxembourg
035 UK
At 500 deaths per million * 67 Million (the UK population) is 33,500 deaths in the UK.
The world population is 7,800 Million (7.8 Billion). That equates to a worldwide death toll of 3.9 MILLION dead