U.K. Suffers High Death Toll Despite Massive Spending to Combat Covid

There follows a guest post by a subeditor and long-time Daily Sceptic reader who is keeping his identity anonymous. He has spotted that spectacular healthcare spending and impressive vaccination rates have not brought the U.K. obvious rewards against Covid. (Sweden is highlighted in the graph above because, by imposing the fewest restrictions, it is the closest Europe has to a control.)

Recent figures for European countries from the World Mortality Dataset, depicted in the graph above, reveal that island nations have fared particularly well during the pandemic: Iceland, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta have all recorded low levels of excess deaths. However, there is one noteworthy exception – the U.K.

In fact, even the third poorest country in Europe, Kosovo, riven by war in the late 1990s, and only an independent state since 2008, has performed better. This is despite the Balkan country having, per capita, a fraction of our health service facilities, staff and expertise.

The double-vaccination rate in Kosovo, currently 30% of the population, is a long way behind the U.K. on 66%.

Excess mortality is widely regarded as the best measure of a country’s success in coping with a prolonged health crisis, such as a bad flu season, as it allows for differing evaluations of the causes of death, notably whether they have been ‘with’ or ‘of’ Covid, and disregards arbitrary time limits, such as within 28 days of a positive PCR test. All other deaths, such as those brought on by lockdown measures, are also, of course, included in these statistics.

This evidence shows that spending billions of pounds above normal on health services and staff, and enticing a large proportion of a population to get vaccinated, do not necessarily correlate with a lower number of deaths.

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NeilofWatford
4 years ago

How many of these excess deaths were because of the vaccine?
And how many of them died because their underlying medical problems weren’t identified because we were forced to protect the NHS?
And how many deaths have been falsely allocated to covid, when the cause was something else?
As Bowie said, this ain’t rock n roll, this is genocide.

John
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

Personally, I think that too much emphasis is being put on the vaccine as being the underlying cause. This data covers the whole 20 months of the situation, using one of the favourite terms in medicine, the causes are multifactorial, primarily non SARS-CoV-2 related factors.
You need to factor in the leading causes of death here in the U.K., which remained untreated as people were discouraged from attending hospital or couldn’t see their GP. Malcolm Kendrick relates a story where an ambulance refused to take an elderly patient into hospital and he had had to insist. When the roads became busier road traffic collisions increased. Then there were those who took their own lives.

Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago
Reply to  John

This is focusing on Covid as the underlying cause, not the vaccine.

Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Barwick

Sorry John, posted that too quickly without reading carefully.

robwallser
robwallser
4 years ago
Reply to  John

Wouldnt it be refreshing almost entertainig to see how mny people have died of cancer,tumours ,strokes ,aneurysms, renal failiure etc in the last 12 months while the UK govt have been fucking about with this “pretend its serious” cold bug

robwallser
robwallser
4 years ago
Reply to  John

Will we ever get those sort of figures .Its odd that the Covid death count is almost constantly updated but figures for flu asthma COPD ,URI’s are almost non existant at the moment.As well being deceptive this suggests no one is taking a nations health very seriously at the moment.This wont just be corrected in a moment either

Ruth Learner
Ruth Learner
4 years ago
Reply to  robwallser

See UK Column news Monday 4 October – quoting ‘John Doe’ article based on foi request of large nhs trust – 90% or so of ‘covid’ marked cases were primary cause other illnesses (including sprained ankles etc.) – many going in without covid

Uncle Monty
4 years ago

Scandinavia has longer darker winter days, rickets was a real problem due to lack of vitamin D.
Scandinavian nations have all fortified food with vitamin D. Could this explain their far better outcomes than the UK?

https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2015/05/28/Sweden-to-expand-mandatory-vitamin-D-fortification

Norman
4 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Monty

How pathetic is it that someone can down-tick a legitimate question?

realarthurdent
4 years ago
Reply to  Norman

It’s probably Hancock. He lied about Vitamin D in the House of Commons after all. Although in fairness, he lied about pretty much everything. Even Dominic Cummings, arch-Machiavellian, seemed surprised at the scale of the terminological inexactitudes emanating from the former Health Secretary.

RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  Norman

I wouldn’t worry too much. Down-tickers are, by definition, usually devoid of a capacity to mount an argument, whereas up-tickers are simply saying ‘I agree’, and don’t have to do so.

DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
4 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Precisely. If you understand the argument being made there is no need for an explanation. If you don’t understand, then no explanation is possible.

John
4 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Monty

It is a recommendation that people in the U.K. should supplement their diet with vitamin D during winter particularly those of us with darker skin.

brachiopod
4 years ago
Reply to  John

10,000 IU D3 +500mcg K2 should have been given to everyone since the summer through the winter.

Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago
Reply to  John

But not by enough.

GCarty80
GCarty80
4 years ago
Reply to  John

Another group with especially strong cause to supplement with vitamin D would be Muslim women.

JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Monty

It could be. Worth noting that most places have quietly changed their recommendations for Vitamin D supplements in the darker times of year (as we use ultra violet B to create our own) – double the numbers on the NHS site, e.g., and double it again on German sites. Some parts of the world do use additional supplements in dairy products, but not all. Not done at all in the UK.

The older recommended daily intake was 5 micrograms, but is now 10, or 20, depending what you read. Some notes re food content below.

Dietary sources.jpg
icnoble
icnoble
4 years ago

Also the fact that we have one of the highest obesity rates in the word haven’t helped.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  icnoble

obesity  i.e. “Fructose poisoning”

John001
John001
4 years ago

Plus too much corn, soya bean, sunflower, etc oil.
Plus a diet full of ‘highly processed foods’, designed for ‘hyper-palatability’.
Plus a significant number of the population take no exercise.
Plus a high level of inequality can’t help. ‘Low-status’ individuals experience poorer health and higher obesity.

Adding all this and more, it makes it seem inevitable that we have problems.

Skeptical_Stu
Skeptical_Stu
4 years ago
Reply to  John001

You could almost conclude that SARS-COV2 was made for the western diet… 😉

TreeHugger
4 years ago
Reply to  John001

I’d be interested to see how many of us on here have good/bad diets and are overweight/obese. I’ve often wondered if junk food lowers brain function.

Junk food, junk TV and junk magazines (celeb lifestyle crap) seem to me to have created a population of near zombies who are, as we’ve seen, easily manipulated.

I often wonder what makes us sceptics different.

FrankFisher
4 years ago
Reply to  TreeHugger

Most sceptics I know were bullied at school. We are not so much sceptical, as wary of crowds….

Skeptical_Stu
Skeptical_Stu
4 years ago
Reply to  FrankFisher

Very interesting premise. For the record, I was bullied at school for my first two years. Until I learned karate and fought back. My last 3 years were a completely different experience. Though I was still bullied, and I am an introvert. As a result of being bullied? That’s beyond my paygrade lol.

Just to add, I did do a crude Myers-Briggs personality type test on here some months back. And while Introvert did score highly, the most common trait was Judgement. I thought it would have been Intuition, though that did score well too.

It’s a good point about being wary of crowds. And I understand you mean more than just being introverted (Not following the crowd etc). Though I do believe what makes a sceptic has to do with a number of factors, psychology only being part of it.

Nymeria
4 years ago
Reply to  TreeHugger

I do eat a fair amount of junk food but I’m skinny, and I don’t have an appetite for junk tv or junk magazines. I think my contrary-from-birth nature, and a deep dislike for being told what to do, have certainly contributed to my stance throughout this whole shit show.

Paul B
4 years ago

Starting to sound a lot like the findings of the public enquiry. ‘We should have locked down sooner and harder’ etc etc ad nauseam.

Stevey
Stevey
4 years ago
Reply to  Paul B

Didn’t all those eastern European countries that did worse than us do just that?

brachiopod
4 years ago

Listening to Radio Wales this morning with the usual puff fairy story about the ‘vaccine’ being inflicted on 12 to 15 year olds due to the decisions of the CMOs.
An interview with a woman from Resolven regarding her 15 year old who intended to get the ‘vaccine’ should be ringing alarm bells with the Welsh CMO, because she has ‘had covid’ and had apparently quite badly for a child – breathing difficulties etc – meaning she is in the cohort most likely to suffer ADE from the ‘vaccine’ and possibly die.
Even if they were only following ‘the science’ the fact that anyone who had covid was excluded from the trials means they have no safety data on a large number of those currently being or intended to be ‘vaccinated’.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Not convinced at all on any of the numbers, most of it appears to be propaganda to prolong the covid hysteria. A lot died at the start, but that could have been because critically ill elderly in hospital were removed to their care homes where doctors refused to visit and DNR notices were the reading material of the day. Then we have those who ‘died within 28 days of a positive test’, then we have those where ‘covid was mentioned’ on their death cert.

Londo Mollari
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Don’t forget the 1000% increase in Midazalam purchases by the NHS.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Yes and where is it now, was it all used?

ComeTheRevolution
ComeTheRevolution
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Top research and enquiry here:
Overwhelming Evidence of Midazolam Murders By Government Policy

https://www.thebernician.net/overwhelming-evidence-of-midazolam-murders-by-government-policy/

rockoman
rockoman
4 years ago

The reason is because the covid stats are nonsense, whether ‘covid deaths’ or ‘covid cases’

The excess mortality in the UK MarchApril 2020 was due to lockdown, hospital clearances. end of life pathways being implemented etc.

The fact that ‘covid deaths’ vary so widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, even within the same country, is a major tell that the ‘covid death rate’ was a function of administrative response, and not of any new disease., as Denis Rancourt has remarked.

If the author wants to know why Kosovo has so many fewer ‘covid deaths’ than Britain, then he should look at how much Midazolam was used in Kosovo in the time period concerned.

realarthurdent
4 years ago
Reply to  rockoman

That is true of COVID death classifications, which make comparisons between countries pretty meaningless.
But the chart is excess all cause mortality as I understand it, not COVID deaths, so assuming they used the same methodology for every country that should be a more valid comparison?

rockoman
rockoman
4 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

Lockdowns, ventilators, midazolam, hospital expulsions, people too scared to go to hospital etc all raise all cause mortality.

Who knows what ct thresholds were being used in different countries.

Knowing what we know of human nature and how our system ‘works’ I expect that whole groups of dead in care homes were classified as ‘covid deaths’ without so much as a PCR test at all.

In the middle of a ‘pandemic’, lots of pathway deaths’, no autopsies, government and media whipping up fear.

Nobody is going to ask too many questions.

Mark
4 years ago

Interesting, thanks. Shame Belarus is not included (not sure why, given that places like Ukraine and Moldova were).

Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago

Anyone know what the reason might be for Bulgaria’s startling result?

realarthurdent
4 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Barwick

Good question. They appear to have vaccinated less and had less stringent lockdowns than the UK. Do they have a very elderly population?

George L
4 years ago

How many more ‘word salads’ from every conceivable angle do we have to endure regarding this souped up flu ??? And as for quoting Gallup.. give me a break.. if you want accuracy use YouGov.. ha ha ha.. oh wait!!

realarthurdent
4 years ago

In fact, even the third poorest country in Europe, Kosovo, riven by war in the late 1990s, and only an independent state since 2008, has performed better. This is despite the Balkan country having, per capita, a fraction of our health service facilities, staff and expertise.”

I would say it’s because it has a fraction of our health service facilities, staff and expertise.

We see the same outcome on a much larger scale in India.
These countries couldn’t afford a huge public health intervention and (not sure about Kosovo but certainly true in India) couldn’t afford a huge rollout of expensive vaccines and so opted for cheaper existing treatments, as in Uttar Pradesh where COVID-19 has essentially been eradicated.

The “health services” in large Western countries are the problem, not the solution. They are geared up to earn money for pharmaceutical companies and to provide an ongoing justification for more expenditure on the health service itself, not to help sick people get healthy again.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

the over pay for medics is massive considering the surplus of applicants and the way there’s an artificial shortage of skilled medics to bump up consultant pay is a total scandal.
The doctors union the BMA has a lot of blood on it’s hands.

John001
John001
4 years ago

Best-paid doctors in Europe except for Switzerland, I hear.

Yet no longer paid to think independently, only to ‘follow protocols’ and dispense what pharma has patented.

GPs who think for themselves, cure half their diabetes patients and save the Treasury £40,000 per year, like David Unwin, deserve a medal and a prime-time TV programme.

Freecumbria
4 years ago
Reply to  John001

The success of the low carb programme at the wonderful David Unwin’s Norwood surgery is an example of what could be achieved if genuine evidence based medicine prevailed, free from the conflicts of interest and the deadly influences of big food and big pharma.

PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
4 years ago

I doubt whether there is any meaningful data about this – certainly not from this country. If one looks at last year’s all cause mortality it was slightly above average (but only for the last decade), and this in a population being denied regular hospital treatment for almost anything – elderly people expelled from hospital in the first wave etc. Otherwise we just have smoke and mirrors with the government trying to exaggerate the data for political ends rather than minimise it.

Smelly Melly
4 years ago

Is anybody left alive in Sweden after their reckless lack of restrictions?

(It wouldn’t be that humans cannot “fight” a virus as they are far too small and far too numerous to stop and we have been living with them since before we were fish).

GlassHalfFull
4 years ago

Sweden admitted that most of it’s deaths were in care homes.
Interestingly Sweden has a much higher proportion of privately run care homes than it’s near neighbours.
The UK also has many more privately run care homes.
I know of one very expensive care home that hadn’t bought enough PPE and the local GP service had to give them some of theirs.
Those countries with municipal run care homes fared much better.
Perhaps running care homes for profit is not the best way to treat the elderly and frail particularly when there is a pandemic?

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

It used to be said, don’t know if it still applies, but if you bought a care home you could retire in 10 years

JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Some might have achieved that as a form of investment, but on the other hand, quite a few have gone bust, such as Southern Cross: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Healthcare_(United_Kingdom)

TreeHugger
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

That only works if municipal care homes are well run. Sadly, in the UK, that is rarely the case.

I’m all for taking care homes back into the public sector but only if it’s done properly, not just as cheap as possible.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

During lockdown 1 two lowly Care Assistants from separate care homes told me of deceased patients having Covid listed as Cause of Death on their death certificates when neither of those homes had any record of Covid at all so not with Covid or Covid within 28 days just a blatant lie when the govt/media were intent on fear mongering to keep lockdown going.
There were all sorts of negative consequences arising from this deception from fear and anxiety among other residents and staffs relatives to ruining the institutions reputation within the local community.

RickH
4 years ago

No. ‘Excess mortality’ is not “the best measure of a country’s success”. It’s a modeller’s variable – subject to several question marks, particularly the question of the baseline used. Given that we cannot be sure of the base data relating to Covid, it is pointless using another dodgy variable. Much better to stick to simple mortality rates, even if this has problems of inter-country comparisons.

Stephensceptic
Stephensceptic
4 years ago

Something to bear in mind is that we are dealing with very small fractions here.

The excess death percentage is circa 0.1%. Talking about absolute numbers per 100k masks this.

It does not need too much “difference” to create wildly different outcomes for such a small fraction.

Even things as simple as how bad the 2019 flu season was in different countries (the dry tinder hypothesis) will be enough to create very different measured outcomes.

My main take out from this graph is that the impact across Europe has been small, and seems totally independent of pretty much everything that we humans think we can “control”.

crisisgarden
4 years ago

It could just mean we were better at creating the conditions that might lead to death (keeping people away from hospitals, causing massive loss of life in nursing homes etc). Gold star to Boris Johnson from the Globalists. 🏅

Dave
Dave
4 years ago

Be interesting to see the results for Northern Ireland. The “island effect” vs. being (sorta kinda) in the UK

rayc
rayc
4 years ago

Well, Germany has also had massive spending (highest in Europe, I believe), and see how well it has worked, it’s better than Sweden. And Bulgaria certainly did not spend much and it’s right there in the top (same can be said about vaccine-resistant Russians). Basically, such charts, without taking into account factors such as population structure, density, and prevailing attitudes toward vaccination can be used to argue in any direction you like.

Julian
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Almost as if governments were powerless to stop respiratory viruses.

robwallser
robwallser
4 years ago

So what does this tell us

Think Harder
Think Harder
4 years ago

It’s a shame we can’t check for correlation to general health status, especially levels of those compounds that aid immune systems and metabolic health. You may also have an effect in nations that have endured recent great stress but now ok where the dry tinder has already burnt and those lines surviving are genetically a little stronger than average compared to countries that have had it easy for a long time.

babsiep
babsiep
4 years ago

What do the numbers on the horizontal axis represent?

babsiep
babsiep
4 years ago
Reply to  babsiep

Sorry- just worked it out-doh

BungleIsABogan
4 years ago

Headline:

U.K. Suffers High Death Toll Despite Massive Spending to Combat Covid

Corrected:

U.K. Suffers High Death Toll Despite Because of Massive Spending to “Combat” Covid

Might be a bit too cryptic for some…

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago

But we know now that there were few ”excess deaths” and that most of those were as a result of mishandling (deliberately?) the situation with the helpless elderly. As a result of an FOI, local authorities nationwide showed that the number of cremations and burials didn’t vary much over the past five years. And the ”125,000 deaths from covid” were actually a part of the normal 600,000 or so from all causes (though registered as ”covid deaths”).

I daresay there are ”excess deaths” this year due to the quacksine/suicide/delayed treatments, etc.

cargumdeu
cargumdeu
4 years ago

Absolutely refusing to treat covid in its symptomatic phase with eg zinc, high dose D3 and C, quercetin etc, has pretty much guaranteed we have among the highest mortality rates worldwide. Thanks NHS!

kate
kate
4 years ago

https://archive.org/details/investigative_corona_committee_date_72

Latest Corona Committee discussing the capture of the legal system. In English.

kate
kate
4 years ago
Reply to  kate

Interesting and important Corona Committee session. Discusses the capture of the legal system, the reason for the non-success of the legal cases against the cabal, what can be done, how the resistance is forming, the whistle blowers and the need for international co-operation..

kate
kate
4 years ago
Anthony_Blighe
4 years ago

I love your work Will, but when you talk about excess deaths, can you please define the term? Is it compared to 2019? Is it 2014 to 2019? 2009 to 2019? Is it age standardised? And how does this excess compare to other years, roughly half of which will presumably have a deficit – this would give an indication of whether these numbers are “nothing to see here” or “crikey, loads more people died than normal!”.