An earlier lockdown would have almost certainly reduced the number of deaths short term.
Long term it will depend on how we get out of this situation. At some point the vast majority of the population needs to obtain immunity. The only way this will happen without a significant number of deaths will be through a countrywide (and eventually global) vaccination programme - which requires a viable, safe and workable vaccine.
So far I don't think anyone in the UK has died specifically because there was inadequate treatment/ventilators/drugs/etc. If there's a breakthrough in a specific treatment/drug then some of the people that have already died may have been able to be saved, in which case an earlier lockdown would have saved even more. But, sadly, many of the people who have died so far would have died whether they were patient zero or patient 67,000,000.
That's not really what I meant. They had greatly increased exposure to the virus due to their occupation, possibly more so due to lack of adequate PPE. But those NHS staff didn't die because of inadequate treatment, ventilators or drugs.
An earlier lockdown would have almost certainly reduced the number of deaths short term.
Long term it will depend on how we get out of this situation. At some point the vast majority of the population needs to obtain immunity. The only way this will happen without a significant number of deaths will be through a countrywide (and eventually global) vaccination programme - which requires a viable, safe and workable vaccine.
So far I don't think anyone in the UK has died specifically because there was inadequate treatment/ventilators/drugs/etc. If there's a breakthrough in a specific treatment/drug then some of the people that have already died may have been able to be saved, in which case an earlier lockdown would have saved even more. But, sadly, many of the people who have died so far would have died whether they were patient zero or patient 67,000,000.