Coronavirus: Comparing death tolls ‘premature’, says PM as he dumps international chart from daily briefings after seven weeks
Written by News on 13/05/2020
Boris Johnson says death tolls in countries around the world are no longer being released by Downing Street because it is “premature” to compare them.
The prime minister was under pressure to explain why the data published at Number 10 coronavirus briefings since 30 March was pulled on Monday.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged him to defend the move after the UK became the country with the highest death toll in Europe and second highest in the world, with at least 33,000 fatalities from COVID-19.
Mr Johnson said: “He seeks to make comparisons with other countries, which I’m advised are premature because the correct and final way of making these comparisons will be when we have all the excess death totals for all the relevant countries.
“We do not yet have that data.
“I’m not going to try to pretend to the house that the figures when they are finally confirmed are anything other than stark and deeply, deeply horrifying. This has been an appalling epidemic.
“What I can tell the house is that we are getting those numbers down, the number of deaths are coming down, the number of hospital admissions is down.”
Brandishing a copy of last week’s slide showing the UK’s death toll on a graph along with other countries including the US, Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Germany and South Korea, Sir Keir said he was “baffled” at the prime minister’s answer.
“It’s not me seeking to draw the comparisons, these are the government slides that have been used for seven weeks to reassure the public.
“The problem with the prime minister’s answer is it’s pretty obvious for seven weeks when we weren’t the highest number in Europe they were used for comparison purposes, as soon as we hit that unenviable place they’ve been dropped.”
He added: “Dropping the comparisons means dropping the learning – that’s the real risk.”
A Downing Street spokesperson confirmed the prime minister thought there would be a “time to draw comparisons but now wasn’t it”.
They added the “format and content” of the Downing Street briefings has been changed “throughout this process”.
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Comparing death tolls ‘premature’, says PM as he dumps international chart from daily briefings after seven weeks
