Coronavirus has (as at 12.04.20) infected some 1,784,300 people round the world, and killed some 108,900 of them; a mortality rate of about 6%. What requires some explanation is why mortality rates have been so much higher in the UK than in other countries.

In Portugal, Canada, Austria, Germany, and South Korea, for example, rates are significantly lower. A German contracting coronavirus has a 1 in 45 chance of dying, whereas in the UK it is more than 1 in 8 – more than 5 times the rate in Germany (see footnote for numbers)

These are pretty terrifying odds, and even more so when the distribution of mortality with age is factored in. The above are averages for all ages; so for those of Grumpy’s age, the statistics are far worse, and pushed it to the level more often associated with more ostensibly malign infections.

This disparity may be due to differences in levels of preparedness, better funded and equipped health facilities in the countries with lower rates, age distribution of the population, or the timing and nature of the political decisions taken as the scale of the pandemic unfolded.

Postmortems don’t help the corpse, and “if only we had …” conclusions are pointless. What is essential is that the reason for the disparities are determined, and (to use the hackneyed expression so beloved of politicians before they do precisely nothing) “lessons learned”. This time, however, the economic rubble left in the broken businesses of voters might just be the catalyst for a more meaningful review of ‘rare event’ planning.

Country	Cases	Deaths	% deaths
Italy	152,271	19,468	12.79
UK	78,991	9,875	12.50
Belgium	28,018	3,346	11.94
Netherlands	24,413	2,643	10.83
Spain	161,852	16,480	10.18
Sweden	10,151	887	8.74
Switzerland	25,107	1,036	4.13
USA	525,559	20,304	3.86
Ireland	8,928	320	3.58
Portugal	15,987	470	2.94
Canada	23,195	648	2.79
Austria	13,799	337	2.44
Germany	123,878	2,736	2.21
S Korea	10,480	211	2.01
Israel	10,743	101	0.94
World	1784331	108962	6.10