The deadliness of the virus advances progressively with the age of the patient, research suggests.
www.bbc.com
It now known that at least 50% (Spain 66%) of deaths from covid-19 in most countries occurred in care homes and that the primary cause of those deaths was not the virus itself but the effects of lockdown.
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, nearly 50,000 care home deaths were registered in the 11 weeks up to 22 May in England and Wales — 25,000 more than you would expect at this time of the year.
A British Medical Journal study noted that during the 2 months of lockdown, 30,000 excess deaths in care homes occurred in England and Wales, and of those, 20,000 were not related to covid-19.
The Italian govt. statistics office, Istat, has reported nearly 19,000 additional excess deaths during March and April — people who died either at home or in nursing homes, unsupported by family, neighbours or care home staff.
A recent study in the southern area of Paris suggests confinement itself has had catastrophic consequences. In long-term care facilities with excess Covid-19 deaths, researchers found that acute respiratory distress was not the primary problem — deaths were mainly due to hypovolemic shock, or fluid loss. Confined to their rooms in lockdown, with staff absences running at 40 per cent and with a consequent reduction in the usual support, residents were dying of thirst.
These facts allow us to draw two reasonable conclusions:
1) there was never any intention to "protect the elderly" as the refrain went, quite the opposite.
2) the people most at risk from this virus are the vulnerable elderly almost always with chronic underlying health conditions.
The first point is tragic and a massive indictment of government and the health service that lays bare their real attitude to the elderly.
The second point is perhaps more important from a global perspective. From the Chinese experience of this virus, it was VERY CLEAR well before lockdowns were imposed in the West, that this virus was almost exclusively only a threat to the vulnerable elderly. The linked article from the BBC is from February 18th, a full month before most lockdowns were imposed.
So the question that remains unanswered is this: why were lockdowns imposed on the entire population when it was well known that the vast majority of the population was not at risk? Why were policies not put in place to protect those most at risk, and instead policies enacted that INCREASED the risk and death toll among those most at risk, which includes deciding NOT to follow the very effective herd immunity path?