Comparing death counts, Lock Down drinking and Long Covid
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The UK was the first European country to surpass 100,000 deaths from Covid 19. The UK has one of the worst death rates. But can we trust the numbers? Many of our listeners have asked us to investigate. Long Covid is widely acknowledged as being a growing problem, but what are the numbers involved? Just how many people have longterm symptoms after their initial infection? There have been reports that we are drinking more in Lock Down. We examine the evidence. Dr Natalie MacDermott was one of the first guests invited on to More or Less to talk about the new coronavirus early last year. We revisit what she said then and what we know now. Plus, she tells of her own struggles with Long Covid.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | Hello and welcome to the final episode of this current series of more or less. |
| 0:11.8 | While we were off air, only 3 million vaccine doses were administered, but in the short |
| 0:16.8 | span of this series, the arms of a grateful nation have received another 13 million doses. |
| 0:23.2 | Now, I, Tim Halford, wouldn't want to claim all the credit for that, but you do have to admit |
| 0:28.3 | it is a striking correlation, isn't it? In our final episode, we'll be looking at the numbers |
| 0:33.9 | behind the vaccine rollout. We'll also investigate the elusive numbers on Long, Covid, and ask |
| 0:39.8 | what's happening to alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse in the time of a pandemic. |
| 0:45.5 | And Dr Natalie McDermott, who first explained coronavirus to us more than a year ago, |
| 0:50.7 | returned to take stock of what we've all learned. |
| 0:53.1 | But first, last month, the UK reached the grim milestone of 100,000 Covid deaths. |
| 1:00.5 | This number is increasing every day, as we're recording the programme, 117,396 people have |
| 1:09.5 | died within 28 days of a positive Covid test. By the time you listen, it will be more. |
| 1:15.8 | The UK was the first country in Europe to pass 100,000 Covid deaths and relative to the size of |
| 1:22.5 | our population, we have one of the highest per-capita Covid deaths in Europe. |
| 1:28.6 | But these comparisons between countries have led a few of our loyal listeners to wonder if we |
| 1:33.0 | really measure up so badly against our neighbours, or if we are assiduously counting deaths |
| 1:39.3 | that others overlook. Just learned of the shocking news of 100,000 deaths in the UK, |
| 1:45.2 | and listened to the comparisons in numbers of this country with other similar countries. |
| 1:49.1 | We compare badly, of course, however, have other European countries been grossly under-reporting |
| 1:55.2 | their numbers. To help us understand more about how the UK and other countries are counting Covid |
| 2:01.3 | deaths, I spoke to two of the country's foremost visualisers of data, Hannah Richie from our |
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