Very disappointing reporting by @NickTriggle et al again from the BBC. An article that makes a number of bogus claims without caring to reference any of them. bbc.co.uk/news/health-55…
A thread [1/8]
The authors didn't care to put this in perspective and compare to other global hubs (all had significantly lower covid deaths). It also ignores mentionung in this context that the UK was the last to impose quarantines on travelers or PCRs for those who arrive. [2/8]
Australia & New Zealand imposed travel bans and quarantines and PCR tests on arrivals many months before the UK did. It's shocking that the authors chose to ignore mentioning this when making this comparison. [3/8]
An article that is literally about comparing the UK to other countries has completely ignored the presence of billions of people in Asia. S. Korea has a density that is THREE times higher than the UK, yet it has 50+ times less deaths per capita. [4/8]
No attempt to substantiate this claim either. Here's an earlier tweet showing how the UK population is not really particularly old and actually many nations with older populations and similar demographics had much less deaths per capita.
Unsubstantiated comments off the cuff that you would expect from a tabloid, not the BBC. This claim is questionable to say the least. Here is a list of some 30 countries with more obesity and less covid deaths than the UK.
I guess you see the pattern here, no references and feels like some dudes chatting in a pub, not a BBC article. Compared to who? [7/8]
Why does the BBC consistently and systematically report on covid in a way that vindicates the government? Why are uncritical journalists systematically retained and promoted in the BBC while those who dissent are sidelined to the fringes? This book has some hints. [8/8]
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Yesterday, @theresecoffey claimed to @susannareid100 & @piersmorgan that it is the UK's ageing and obese population that led to its shocking covid death rate. This is untrue and here are some examples: [1/6] Canada's population is older:
Canada's population has a very comparable obesity rate to UK: [2/6]
As you probably know Canada has a much << Covid death toll per capita than the UK. Even Toronto, with ~7 times higher population density than the UK covid mortality per capita is dramatically lower. [3/6]
The UK has the worst Covid-19 situation in the world right now. A few graphs to compare it to other countries: The increase in deaths in last 14 days is the highest in the world, followed closely by Portugal (although the latter has much less deaths per capita overall) [1/3]
You can see the sharp rise in UK deaths compared to all other countries with 100K cases or more. UK has the 3rd highest deaths per capita after Slovenia and Belgium although unlike UK, Belgium records covid deaths without a pcr test. Slovenia has a population of only 2M [2/3]:
Among the four major European countries worst hit by Covid in the first wave (Italy, Spain, France and UK), the UK is the only one to have significantly exceeded daily death tolls compared to first wave, all other three seem to be plateauing while UK is still rising sharp.