It’s far too early to draw meaningful comparisons. As IBS pointed out over the weekend in one of his more lucid moments, there is no standardised way of recording deaths and there is a difference between dying of Covid-19 and dying with Covid-19. In the UK, we initially measured those dying in hospital with Covid19, but that has now been expanded that to all settings and, as I understand it, we are including people who died with Covid19 symptoms irrespective of whether they have been tested.
As this bloke points out, it will be some time before meaningful comparisons can be made:
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ther-countries
My suspicion is that Germany’s high test capacity will prove to have been crucial. The UK’s track and trace phase had to be cut short because of the lack of the same. We may also need to look at behavioural responses within the population and sections of the population.
My understanding is that the availability of ventilators has not proved to be an issue and that medical opinion is tending against invasive ventilation as its effect on outcomes is limited.
My worry is that the scientific investigation of the UK’s response will be overtaken by a political blame game. It already is on here for some posters even though people are still dying.