Quote Originally Posted by gogobongopop View Post
What's the betting that it'll never be an "appropriate time" to a.) compare excess death figures and b.) perform a retrospective on the government's handling of the virus?

a.) because as long as one country doesn't report "well enough" they'll claim there's no point in any comparisons
b.) because the focus has to be on the economic recovery (not Brexit; they won't make a big deal of that anymore)
By this time next year we will be able to but any comparisons will be hard to make anyway. We've learnt so much about this, as we discussed in the COVID thread when Lewk was moronic enough to try to compare US states to suggest that urban states with Democratic Governors have done a bad job while rural states with GOP Governors have done a good job, that is preposterous. As I said in that thread in reply to that idiocy, you can not compare Smallville to Metropolis. Urban density, demographics etc all affect this. Any reasoned comparisons need to be like-for-like, eg London with Paris and New York etc

But yes the focus should be on the economic recovery by then, that is what is going to matter more. The COVID death toll looks like being comparable to some bad flu seasons like the Hong Kong Flu - bad but could have been worse. The economic damage is going to be catastrophic and recovering is going to be a Herculean task.

Brexit we can discuss in the Brexit thread but the transition period 100% must not be extended.