Coronavirus: Are Tragic NHS Deaths Being Used As Part of the Scare Campaign?
Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA
Great publicity has been given to the number of deaths involving NHS employees who might have died with the coronavirus. (The operative word here is `with’.)
In an average year, 600,000 people die in Britain
That means that in an average sort of week 11,500 people will die in Britain.
The population of the UK is around 60,000,000.
And there are roughly 1.5 million people working for the NHS.
Even allowing for the fact that some people who die are children (who haven’t started work) and many people who die are retired, it is reasonable to assume (after studying the UK Government’s own `death by single year of age’ tables) that at least 100 NHS employees die every week of the year.
It is inevitable that many of those people will have the coronavirus.
But, of course, dying with a disease is not the same as dying of it.
And, remember, the ordinary flu probably kills between 100 and 200 NHS employees a year.
I have seen no evidence that the death rate among NHS employees is higher than usual.
It seems to me that to use the tragic deaths of hard-working NHS employees as a propaganda tool simply shows the savage and appalling ruthlessness that has characterised the Government’s scare campaign.
NHS employees always deserve our respect.
Not just when it suits the Government’s purpose.
Copyright Vernon Coleman May 23 2020
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