ThanQ Sir
UK ONS Figures Show Three Times More Deaths From Flu
& Pneumonia Than COVID 19
by Tyler Durden
Sat, 04/25/2020 - 08:10
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
"New figures from the UK’s Office of National Statistics show that the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia is three times higher than the total number of coronavirus deaths this year.
The figures show that there were 18,500 total deaths in England and Wales in the week up until April 10, which is around 8,000 above what would be considered “normal” at this time of year. Around a third of those 18,500 are linked to coronavirus.
“But the figures for 2020 also show the impact of flu and pneumonia compared to coronavirus,” reports the BBC.
“The number of deaths from flu and pneumonia – at more than 32,000 – is three times higher than the total number of coronavirus deaths this year.”
The report points out that the 18,500 death figure is the highest since January 2000, “when there was a bad flu outbreak.” The number of deaths recorded in the week up until April 10 in 2015, when there was also a particularly deadly flu season, is also relatively close to the number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the same week this year.
Back in February, a leaked government document suggested coronavirus would infect 80 per cent of Brits and killed 500,000. So far, the number of coronavirus deaths recorded by hospitals across the whole of the UK stands at 17,337.
Supporters of the lockdown policies assert that social distancing measures have kept death numbers relatively low based on what was previously predicted.
Others point to the fact that NHS hospitals are four times emptier than normal and overspill hospitals built to prevent existing hospitals from being overwhelmed were never used to claim that the coronavirus threat was exaggerated."
moar:
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/uk-ons-figures-show-three-times-more-deaths-flu-pneumonia-covid-19
Fact Check: Trump claims coronavirus tests are widely
available. They are not
Michael Collins Nicholas Wu Cara Kelly David Heath
USA TODAY
updated 4:16 am EDT
"WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said there are plenty of coronavirus tests available, but many governors said they're running short even as states begin to lift their stay-at-home orders.
"This is probably the number one problem in America, and has been from the beginning of this crisis, the lack of testing," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, said on CNN Sunday.
Trump insisted Monday that there was “tremendous capacity” for coronavirus testing at U.S. labs. He said governors such as Hogan needed “to get a little knowledge” about the testing situation.
The country’s largest private labs said they have plenty of capacity to test samples sent from medical offices and hospitals, but governors in a wide array of states said health care providers can’t conduct the tests because of a lack of supplies such as swabs and a chemical known as a “reagent” crucial to the process.
Public health experts and private and public labs contacted by USA TODAY agreed that a major problem was a shortage of supplies at the testing sites where mucus samples are taken.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, said states compete with each other to get more testing supplies, a process he described as “a slog.”
Concerns over testing escalated as the Trump administration issued guidelines meant to help states ease the temporary social distancing restrictions put in place to slow spread of the coronavirus and reopen their economies.
The guidelines call for a three-phase approach: testing, tracing contacts of those infected and, in time, treatment solutions.
“It’s a perilous set of circumstances trying to figure out how to make this work,” Gordon said last week, “and until we’ve got the testing up to speed – which has got to be part of the federal government stepping in and helping – we’re just not going to be there.”"
moar:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/21/coronavirus-trump-claims-there-plenty-tests-states-disagree/2997841001/
White House Report Card: Trump struggling politically but
wins more stimulus
by Paul Bedard
April 25, 2020 08:02 AM
"This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump with a couple of wins on immigration policy and added coronavirus stimulus spending, but struggling politically with Joe Biden and stung by criticisms of his public wondering about using a concoction of disinfectant and ultraviolet light to cure virus victims.
One of our weekly graders, pollster John Zogby, gave a D+, and noted that while the president has a 46% approval rating, it is low for a “wartime” leader. Our other grader, conservative analyst Jed Babbin, grading C+, warned of the growing national debt and unemployment and rapped the president’s “leadership skills.”"
moar:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/white-house-report-card-trump-struggling-politically-but-wins-more-stimulus