Why is UK death rate so high

Can someone explain to me why our death rate from this virus appears to be so much higher than other countries.
Germany has 29000 confirmed cases and 119 deaths
USA has 43000 confirmed cases and 565 deaths
UK has 6600 confirmed cases and 335 deaths.

Why such a huge discrepancy, we're right up there in ratio of confirmed cases/deaths.

I could understand it is NHS was already past capacity, but as far as I'm aware we're not there yet. Struggling to find a reason ... do we have more older people getting it, or more with underlying issues or is there something more systemic?

 

We are having to trust numbers from other sources - but, i agree it seems high. I think Italy is similar....

 

I presume it is partially explained by the lack of testing we're doing

 

It isn't higher it's just that we are doing much less testing.

Let's say the virus infects 1/10 people, 1/10 of those get symptoms, 1/10 of those with symptoms become hospitalised and 1/10 of those hospitalised dies (made up figures)
In the UK we only test once you get hospitalised so put figures would show 1/10 confirmed cases result in deaths.
In another country they test ANYONE with symptoms so that would be 1/100 die.
In South Korea they test pretty much everyone regardless of symptoms so that's 1/1000

The same number of people are dying but the official rate changes because the testing is more focused. Here we only test those who are on deaths door

 

Probably because we’ve carried out so few tests. In reality we may have in excess of 50000 infections but we’ve tested only a small % of the population. Germany for example have probably tested a lot bigger %.

 

You can’t compare any countries ‘death rate’.

We all have the same number at the top of the fraction (no of deaths) but the denominator is ‘number of positively tested’. And importantly this differs due to the testing regime.

I’ve been saying this for days, the only way you can ‘know’ an actual death rate is to test everyone, but we’ve decided that’s not possible.

it’s irrelevant as a comparative statistic because there’s no common methodology.

 

This is true

 

^^^^ This

 

I don’t know but perhaps we have more stupid people than other countries.
Yesterday was a prime example of mass stupidity. Country in the middle of this corona epidemic and people told to not go out and not visit mothers on Mother’s Day.
Well thousands thought it clever to ignore that very good advice.
Just absolute idiots. Now proper restrictions are being forcibly imposed upon them.
This lock down is necessary and might work.

 

It's easy enough to answer. This started in China in December. Our Government did nothing. The PM took off with his mistress for a 10 day holiday in the Sun and we still did nothing. Meanwhile our Country was flooding. In January we did nothing and in February we did nothing. The NHS has been starved of funding for 10 years and could have been better prepared for this had Doris De Waffle Johnson not ignored the situation. He lied saying Hospitals had all the kit they needed to cope. De Waffle then went into panic mode. Today he said the Army were going to deliver kit which he said they already had. In other words it's another Tory balls up which has cost lives. In Wales a Veterinary Practice sent personal protective equipment to their local Hospital which had none. That just about sums it up.

 

Am I being a bit thick here?
The ratio is 'confirmed cases' to deaths. So even if we only tested 7000 people and 6600 proved to be 'confirmed' as having it. Of those 6600 335 have died.
If in Germany they tested 1,000,000 and 29,000 were confirmed to have had it, they still only had 119 people who had it die.

Isn't the death ratio infected / died? Doesn't matter how many you test. If we tested 10 people, 6 were found to have it. Of those who have it 3 die then the ratio is 50%?

 

So this virus is the Tory virus then?

 

You’re not being thick, that’s exactly how it works.
Indeed the health spokesperson on tv on Sunday said there’s no point comparing’ death rates’ as it was dependent on the testing.

 

If we are only testing people when they show symptoms and have gone into hospital then it is going to skew mortality figures, as they are already seriously ill at the point of testing. Other countries have been proactive with it and we know that many, many people show no symptoms at all, so their rates will be much lower as theyve captured this data.

So as Donny Red says it is pointless comparing mortality rates.

 

Its because there are so many people who will have it who aren't showing symptoms so it isn't so much that 50% of those tested die it's more about the number who have it but aren't tested.

Back to me 1/10 thing earlier.

1/10 who get put in hospital die. The UK tests all those 10 and nobody else so that's 10%. Now just think if they had also tested another 1000 random people and found that 1/10 of those had it. That's 100 confirmed cases now simply because they've tested more people. The death rate now appears to be 1/100 not 1/10.

Basically it's about who isn't tested in the UK not about who is. We are missing cases which would be confirmed that other countries are identifying and including

 

I think it would have been useful as well as testing the people in hospitals to test say 500 random people with no reported symptoms every day. Those results would likely be the most useful information in determining the real spread and lethality of the virus.

 

So I'm right? Basically your chances of dying from it, once you've caught it, are much higher in this country than almost anywhere else.
WTF? What is so different here than those other countries? That's the bit I can't figure out? We have a first rate health care system, so what is so different?

You're more than 10 (TEN) times more likely to survive in Germany if you have the virus than you are here. Not sure how many ICU's they have in Germany, but can't be much more than 29,000 what are they doing that is so different, or is it entirely down to the classification of people who are contracting this virus.

 

No, you can't compare mortality rates. See above posts.

 

Okay, that makes sense. Confusing myself now.