Tuesday, May 19, 2020

British casualties of WWII vs the coronavirus pandemic

In 1939 the estimated population of the United Kingdom was 47,760,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College

The Second World War killed 384,000 UK military and 70,000 British civilians https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/olympic-britain/crime-and-defence/the-fallen/ - a total of 454,000 deaths

Here is a graph of live births for 1939 - 1948
(from https://www.statista.com/statistics/281965/live-births-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-1931-1960/)


From 1939 to 1944, a total of 3,813,055 children were born - that is, for every 10 people that were killed by enemy action, 84 new ones came into the world. 

In every single year of the war, far more Britons were born than were killed in the entire six years of the conflict. 

So as with the coronavirus pandemic, the death toll by itself does not explain what the fuss is about.

7 comments:

Sackerson said...

A propos, JD says:

Out of curiosity I rang the chiropractor yesterday morning to see if they had been allowed to open again. And yes they are open but with restrictions, meaning they are like the supermarkets with one in and one out being the new plan.

But.... they received instructions from the government on Friday that they are not allowed to treat anyone over the age of 70!

So the rumours are true. Oldies are being denied medical care/treatment in the hope that we will all just go away and die. I told the receptionist that I am just 69 but she laughed because she knows how old I am and then she apologised on behalf of the chiropractor. He wants to get his business back to normal but the insurance companies will not allow it; premiums would be astronomical. This culture of fear now dominates everyone's thinking and that is going to last a long time as well as causing decades of psychological damage among our young people.

Your post https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2020/03/kill-old.html is a reflection of the hidden (or not so hidden) 'death culture' in western society. Now that abortion is accepted as 'normal' it will be compulsory euthanasia nest followed by a playing out of the movie 'Soylent Green'

You may recall the video by Alan Watts in which he said (I'm paraphrasing from memory) "a culture in which displays of physical love are deemed more harmful than expressions of physical hatred (i.e violence) is a culture that is dedicated to the destruction of life"

Paddington said...

In the US, a couple of weeks ago, the observed death rate was twice the seasonal historical average, and the difference was accelerating. Only half of the 'extra' deaths were officially attributed to COVID-19.

If the numbers hold up, we could be seeing millions dead in the US.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Paddington

In the US, we have about 2.7 million people die a year or 7,700 a day from normal diseases. We have 600,000 plus die from just heart disease each year.

We might see 100,000 more die this year, but I would think that means that there are less old people around to die off next year.

I believe that the pandemic (PANIC) is over. Too bad very few will accept that fact. Remember, clapping your hands keeps the elephants away, so don't stop clapping. wear that face mask and keep 6 feet apart.

Sackerson said...

We seem to be getting back to average.

One of the things I hoped to make readers think about was, if Covid deaths are so insignificant then why do we take a different attitude to WWII deaths? Prof Ferguson began by predicting something like 600,000 in the UK, wjich is way more than the 454,000 of 1939-45 though as a percentage of population is much the same - arounf 0.9%.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Sackerson

People who die in wars, have 50 years of life left, that is what makes it so tragic, plus who wants to see their son die? Everyone lives through their kids. Old age is another thing, it is a progression to the end of life

Paddington said...

@Jim

By the official figures this morning, we already have 93,000 dead of the virus, with about 2,000 per day dying.

Looking at CDC figures, total deaths in the US are running at double the seasonal average, at an accelerating rate, with only half of those additional deaths being officially attributed to COVID-19

I am also looking at the official figures from places like Kansas, Florida and Georgia, where government officials have been repeatedly caught fudging the numbers.

I will be surprised if we can hold the death toll below 500,000 this year.

Paddington said...

Correction: There were an average of 10,000 'extra' deaths per week a couple of weeks ago, at an accelerating rate. Approximately half of those are 'official'.