Avg U.K. manager to worker ratio is 1:6 for the private sector. In the NHS it’s closer to 1:30. If anything the NHS is functioning well beyond its remit in value for money...

Very true. I’ll concede that it’s expected or predictable that those who understand the lockdown use deaths now whereas those who support no lockdown really have to use a ‘‘we’ll see’’ stance because none of the countries can be compared to us. It takes a few days for it to sink home. We all know the English channel and northern sea puts a distance between us and our neighbours that those in schengen don’t have.

Even after the comparisons are done, I wonder if cultural or behavioural differences are taken into account. Probably not. I’ll not use accurate stereotypes here but we know Germans are more obedient, law abiding and government advice following than Britons. They like and respond to rules. And Swedes are more socially aware and value society and others more than Britons.

Unless we see the old bill meaning business, we, well enough of a minority of us, carry on doing what we wanna do. Herd immunity will probably spread it faster in the U.K. than other European countries if that’s the way we go.

All because of a diet eating flying vermin. Why can’t they just require an unnecessary gluten or lactose free diet instead?

We haven’t even hit post lockdown deaths yet, average days from contracting the virus to death is 25 days. The deaths today likely were contracted before we went into lockdown, so as much as I’m sure the government would appreciate you shifting the blame for them at this stage the general public were following the governments guidelines.

I'm not sure you really understand how a hospital works. The 46% aren't all managers for starters - not by a long shot. Then have a think about all the services required to keep a hospital running - from procurement to appointments, cleaning to maintenance. 46% may seem high (and I haven't verified that figure, just taking it on face value), but those roles free up clinicians time to focus on delivering care instead of getting caught up with mangagerial tasks etc.

ICT infrastructure is a good example where a large number of non-clinical people can support rostering systems, payroll systems, ward-based/bedside computers to make the clinicians more efficient.

I'm not saying the ratio you've listed is what we should aspire to, just that it's not as simple.

I personally thing nationwide procurement, centralised hubs for various back office services etc would be a good thing but we won't see that any time soon.

I agree the borders should have been closed earlier, however we would still obviously be duty bound to allow British Citizens to return.

Is it proven that the death rate would not have been so high if we had not gone down the "herd immunity" route? Serious question