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UK faces soaring COVID-19 death rate unless it moves fast, medics warn


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UK faces soaring COVID-19 death rate unless it moves fast, medics warn

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton

 

2020-09-21T110837Z_2_LYNXNPEG8K0JV_RTROPTP_4_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRITAIN.JPG

Commuters walk across the London Bridge during the morning rush hour, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will face an exponentially growing death rate from COVID-19 within weeks unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government moves urgently to halt a rapidly spreading second wave of the outbreak, the country's senior medics said on Monday.

 

The United Kingdom already has the biggest official COVID-19 death toll in Europe - and the fifth largest in the world - while it is borrowing record amounts in an attempt to pump emergency money through the damaged economy.

 

But new COVID-19 cases are rising by at least 6,000 per day in Britain, according to week-old data, hospital admissions are doubling every eight days, and the testing system is buckling.

 

Chris Whitty, the government's chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, cautioned that if left unrestricted the epidemic would reach 50,000 new cases per day by mid October in the United Kingdom.

 

"If this continued along the path...the number of deaths directly from COVID ... will continue to rise, potentially on an exponential curve, that means doubling and doubling and doubling again and you can quickly move from really quite small numbers to really very large numbers," Whitty said.

 

"If we don't do enough the virus will take off and at the moment that is the path that we are clearly on and if we do not change course then we're going to find ourselves in a very difficult problem."

 

The virus is spreading across all areas of the country and less than 8% of the population have antibodies to the virus, though in London around 17% of the population may have antibodies, Vallance said.

 

Speed and action are urgently needed, Vallance and Whitty said, adding that as winter was approaching the COVID problem would haunt Britain for another six months at least.

Johnson is due to speak on Tuesday.

 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the restrictions would be different to last time. The government wants to crack down on socialising but schools and many workplaces will stay open.

 

"If we do have to take action, it will be different to last time and we've learnt a huge amount about how to tackle the virus," he told ITV.

 

"Schools aren't where a lot of the transmission happens, it's more about people socialising," he said.

 

Asked about Christmas and if people would be able to hug their relatives, he said he wanted it to be as normal as possible.

 

"If this runs out of control now, we'll have to take heavier measures in the future," Hancock said.

 

The official UK death toll stands at 41,777 people.

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-21
 

 

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6 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Uh-oh  The UK is in big trouble now since the Johnson government is far too incompetent to be able to manage exponential growth of the virus.  

 

The people are too stupid and incompetent to follow basic advice. Got to take responsibility for their own actions.

 

Edited by Chelseafan
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well so far  the experts in uk have got absolutely nothing right so maybe theyre gonna surprise us, i doubt it!since day one theyve shot hi wide and handsome but they feel they have the right to tell people what to do.the NHS has killed how many?an idiot is exactly that.ask prof ferguson?<deleted> of the decade.so is it a surprise people say go forth?on the other hand the death rates almost disappeared ICUs are empty an d cases are up as they test people that are feeling fine or have minor problems.sink the rest of the economy what else is there that you cant get wrong,so how many do they say will die of covid not with covid in the next 3 mnths?the death nos are still well padded.they must justify their own nonsense by lying so they have some credibility.they have zero and arnt qualified to take a 4 yr old to a toilet and that sums up politicos jsu about world wide barring a few exceptions

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13 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Uh-oh  The UK is in big trouble now since the Johnson government is far too incompetent to be able to manage exponential growth of the virus.  

Can't even manage adhering to agreements made by predecessor from same party

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At least the UK governments seem to at least be serious about the virus.  What is the USA clown and present government doing?  Oh  Elect me  and I will have a vaccine for you, because I am your hero and savior.  Oh  but do not vote for  the other old guy, believe in me, Trump, and  eventually I will tell you the truth. eventually...  I  do hope the USA gets a handle on the virus and convinces at least some of the population to wear masks, and social distance, and look out for each other, and stop being red necks, who think FREEDOM or death.  The whole world needs all the luck it can get.

Geezer

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40 minutes ago, Nout said:

The evidence to support the scaremongering predictions by these to government experts are as reliable as the dodgy dossier that took us into the Iraq war.

You don't have to look very far to realise that the major players in this "agenda" are compromised at best, criminal some would say? but most are incapable of "looking" any more they trust the "media" as they used to protect us from crooked politicians - those days are long gone, they closed that door! 

 

I guess most people can no longer read a graph, why would they need too in a "technocratic" society where they no longer have to think for themselves :thumbsup:

image.png.31787c5fbe7588b7f63607ab4ac51f6a.png

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26

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20 hours ago, RayC said:

This really is poor, factually inaccurate and misleading journalism.  A couple of examples:

 

"Britain will face an exponentially growing death rate from COVID-19 within weeks unless Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government moves urgently to halt a rapidly spreading second wave of the outbreak, the country's senior medics said on Monday.

 

Chris Whitty, the government's chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific advisWhat was actually said was that if and Whitty's words were "big if" the current rate of inflection continues exponentially, then the UK will have 50k daily infections and the number of daily deaths from the virus will inevitably increase. 

 

 

 So , can we take the big if , as being factually  accurate .?

    One thing , is for sure  Britain is no longer Great, and never will be again..

 

Edited by elliss
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