Thursday 6 May 2021
Booze News
Alcohol misuse killed more people last year in England and Wales than in any of the previous 20 years, according to official data.
In 2020, there were 7,423 deaths related to alcohol misuse - up from 19.6% in the previous year, according to data from the Office of National Statistics.
Deaths increased from March 2020, when the first national COVID-19 lockdown was put in place.
Presumably we should put these excess deaths down to government pandemic policy. I'm sure there will be many more. Delayed medical treatment, delayed diagnoses. Boris needs a major distraction and somehow I think he'll find it. Seems to be what he does.
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8 comments:
It seems strange that an alcohol related related illness should develop and kill in such a short time.
As for suicides and murders and other deaths, the statisticians must be fighting to get dewths alotted to their pet cause. Anti booze, covid scare, anti smoking, mental health. Anything, but definitely not-Warble-Gloaming hypothermia.
Looking at current events in Jersey, it seems that Johnson has just gained another convenient distraction. He is certainly a lucky politician. But I suspect that "luck" in politics is really just a euphemism for ruthless opportunism. The "lucky" politician is one who can invent a narrative to turn every unexpected event into something that serves his or her own needs and who has the brass neck to present it as a principled position. From that perspective, Boris Johnson was born lucky.
Stats are a total waste of time here - it'll take even a Dominion nerd ages to realise that the pubs were all shut, so people went to Tesco, and stayed at home for much less than £10.00 a round of bad beer and 125ml of Wincarnis!
7,423 deaths related to alcohol misuse - up from 19.6%
Just to point out that this sentence, which is a verbatim quote from the Sky News site, is gibberish - a number cannot be up from a percentage. Might make sense if you remove
from, but as published it's just wrong. Perhaps we need to wheel out the old cliché about arts graduate journalists and numbers...
Whatever has happened to the stats, or even whether they make any sense, we definitely need more controls on whatever those stats relate to. We could stop this whole alcohol business if we implanted people with microchips, like a herd of dairy cattle. If something alarming happens in the blood readings, then a team of people in hi-vis vests could call round and have words.
Doonhamer - you are right, it's been really cold so it can't be Warble-Gloaming hypothermia. On a serious note, it wouldn't be a surprise if some Covid deaths would have happened anyway because of the cold weather.
Andrew - I'm sure you are right, "luck" in politics is created by ruthless opportunism and Boris seems to have a very acute sense of smell for those opportunities.
Scrobs - yes, open the pubs or supermarket booze will make it into an even bigger problem.
Paul - yes it is gibberish. A problem with pointing out such things in a blog post is that the media sometimes correct errors later so links end up going to the corrected version. Happened to me once. That old cliché about arts graduate journalists and numbers does seem to be sound though.
Sam - I'm sure that is a genuine possibility. An extension of electronic fitness wristbands, people would be persuaded to want it.
Alcohol abuse is my issue too - I just have not been sinking enough tipples and as it's very good for our health, I'm crazy having no more than a red wine with dinner. Need to get out and buy some booze!
James - we're almost teetotal these days. Not sure why, just went off it.
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