I think at 12.7% of total 2020 deaths it is going to be the leading cause of death in 2020. That is a substantial percentage of total deaths Dave. Only Dementia and Alzheimer disease (12.5% total 2019 deaths) and Ischaemic Heart Disease (10.4% total 2019 deaths) come close to a similar percentage of total deaths. Governments the world over spend fortunes managing both of those diseases and should also manage covid. Before 2020 covid didn’t exist as a cause of death. I’d expect any government to respond to such circumstances and if they didn’t I would be seriously questioning why not.
I don’t think the UK or Ireland are under dictatorship Dave but neither do I think either government’s response was adequate. I am from Ireland and have lived in the UK for many years but no longer live in either jurisdiction. Where I live the government got it largely right. They closed the borders, had an initial lockdown beginning in March 2020 and tracked and traced properly and required self isolation at home if found to be positive. Restrictions were lifted in July 2020 except for border controls because we had zero cases for many days. If you travelled off island you had to self isolate for 14 days on return, an inconvenience for sure but a minor one. Everything was essentially normal from July to end of December 2020. Everything was open, all businesses trading, no social dstancing or masks required. No dictatorship. Unfortunately, on New Year’s Eve two people were found to be positive 7 days after completing their self isolation period and we are currently under a lockdown. I fully expect that when they get this under control they will remove the lockdown restrictions again. They are put in place for a reason and removed when that reason is no longer present. Doesn’t look like a dictatorship to me.