M-m-m-My Corona part 9.

 I couldn’t understand why the covid infection rate for the East Midlands (153.9), is higher than that of Nottinghamshire as a whole (145.3). The East Midlands does not have the overcrowding, the international student population, the high immigration, nor the poorer quarters that the city itself has. Then I looked down the list of the East Midlands’ towns and villages most affected:

Gedling – 199
Broxtowe - 222
Rushcliffe - 155
Newark and Sherwood - 129
Mansfield - 109
Bassetlaw - 176
Ashfield – 206

I saw in a heartbeat what links all those places. They all had a colliery. Indeed, in some cases more than one. A significant proportion of the retired male population now living in those areas would have been coal miners; employment which took a toll on their lungs, affecting many for life. (An uncle of mine spent his final years with oxygen tanks constantly on hand).

I have no idea if anyone has considered this as a so called “underlying condition” when assessing chances of infection or fatality, nor if it would be of use to do so anyway. But it perhaps does explain what I thought to be a curious statistic.

(Note: All above statistics are official as published on-line by the Nottingham Post).

 All text copyright Ian Gordon Craig.