Covid Inquiry latest: Emotional Boris Johnson insists ‘I do care’ in defence of premiership
Pete Weatherby KC, representing the bereaved households, has lastly revealed the info Hugo Keith KC was counting on when he mentioned Britain had one of the worst extra loss of life charges in Europe.
Bizarrely although, it comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) exhibiting the UK is mid-table – coming 15th out of 33 international locations.
Despite this clear downside Mr Weatherby pressed on insisting that it was solely proper to match the UK to international locations similar to France, Belgium and The Netherlands, relatively than, say, Bulgaria or Poland.
Attempting to dig himself out of a gap, Mr Weatherby added: “I’m not deprecating, Bulgaria, I’m not being…”
Mr Johnson shot again: “Not being what? What are you doing with Bulgaria then?”
The former Prime minister added: “I don’t believe that your evidence stacks up. This shows exactly what it says . If you look at European tables we come about halfway down. A Lancet study shows we come halfway down.”
As the Telegraph identified yesterday, a significant report printed in The Lancet calculated the Covid extra loss of life charges for 191 international locations and territories and located that the UK was roughly in the center at 102.
European international locations that did worse than us included Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland and Lithuania.
Mr Weatherby, not content material with the depth of his present gap, saved digging, inviting Mr Johnson to touch upon how South Korea had managed to maintain deaths so low.
“The answer is well known to people who have followed it, in no way to detract from the wonderful efforts of South Korean healthcare, they already had substantial experience of Sars and other such diseases and were well prepared,” Mr Johnson mentioned.
