No wonder the PM doesn't like international comparisons.
Only the US and Brazilian governments have been slower to reduce the coronavirus death rate than Boris Johnson, data shows.
Data from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention presented by Our World in Data researchers plots the number of daily confirmed deaths against the total number of confirmed deaths for each country.
“Plotting the data in this way allows us to see when different countries bent the curve,” researchers say.
The data shows that only the US took longer to get the death rate down. Brazil has yet to reduce its death rate, which has just overtaken the UK’s and Sweden’s as the highest per capita in the world.
The UK government has been accused of being too slow to implement a lockdown. It allowed events like Cheltenham festival to go ahead after publicly speculating about a ‘her immunity’ strategy.
The UK also allowed patients with coronavirus to be discharged from hospitals to care homes where they spread the disease. This is in contrast to nations like Hong Kong, which has not had a single case of coronavirus in its care homes.
The UK government also ignored a warning from its scientific advisers that air travel was linked to high coronavirus rates. The UK has kept its borders open throughout the crisis and abandoned quarantining as part of a move from a ‘contain’ to a ‘delay’ strategy. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the UK does not know how many people coming to the country have coronavirus.
Medical professionals and carers have also complained that they have not received enough protective equipment, leading to many dying and many others infecting their patients and clients. One carer told Left Foot Forward: “Some days going into work I could easily break down and cry.”
Joe Lo is a co-editor of Left Foot Forward
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.