Thanks Proth, good article showing that the excess deaths globally for the period are 3 times higher than being reported with 5.9M reported as dying of covid in 2020 whereas the actual global excess death figure for that year was 18.2M. I think we kind of knew that the reporting was all over the place for some countries that were reporting low covid numbers.
Interestingly it also says there is "no clear relationship between levels of excess mortality and different levels of restrictions ... across western, or indeed the whole of, Europe". On the face of it that means that those against the restrictions will be shouting they were right all along, however i'd look at it differently. The only way we could have compared like for like was by letting it run wild everywhere, if that would have been allowed then our health services would have collapsed, the restrictions (even if the numbers ended up being the same) spread the load out over a longer period allowing the health service to deal with it. Also I would say that if it would have let it run without restrictions then we would have been left with a much higher death toll.
Our biggest benefit to our excess deaths being kept down was the roll out of our vaccination program which was much better than Germany and France, yet we were still only on par with them when you would have thought that would have put us better off.
I do think that we have earned our freedoms with what we have dealt with as a country over the last couple of years - I do have concerns about the numbers in hospital but the freedom of a nice meal with the wife on Friday and a night out with the boys on Saturday up town felt very good (although I am slower today than normal)
Interestingly it also says there is "no clear relationship between levels of excess mortality and different levels of restrictions ... across western, or indeed the whole of, Europe". On the face of it that means that those against the restrictions will be shouting they were right all along, however i'd look at it differently. The only way we could have compared like for like was by letting it run wild everywhere, if that would have been allowed then our health services would have collapsed, the restrictions (even if the numbers ended up being the same) spread the load out over a longer period allowing the health service to deal with it. Also I would say that if it would have let it run without restrictions then we would have been left with a much higher death toll.
Our biggest benefit to our excess deaths being kept down was the roll out of our vaccination program which was much better than Germany and France, yet we were still only on par with them when you would have thought that would have put us better off.
I do think that we have earned our freedoms with what we have dealt with as a country over the last couple of years - I do have concerns about the numbers in hospital but the freedom of a nice meal with the wife on Friday and a night out with the boys on Saturday up town felt very good (although I am slower today than normal)