UK’s price of life ‘ lower than in many nations’

Efforts to save lives in pandemic analysed

THE PRICE the UK Government was prepared to pay to save lives during the pandemic was lower than in many other developed nations, a study has revealed.

Analysis by academics at the University of Exeter suggests that, based on the level of economic activity sacrificed, the UK Government was willing to pay far less than other developed countries including Germany, New Zealand and South Korea to protect more citizens’ lives.

The researchers added that 20,000 lives in the UK would have been saved if the Government had imposed lockdown three days earlier.

It came as official statistics showed weekly coronavirus deaths have fallen by more than a quarter within seven days and remain at the lowest level since before the lockdown.

England and Wales are experiencing fewer deaths than would normally be expected for the sixth week in a row, the Office for National Statistics ( ONS) said.

There were 217 deaths registered in the week ending July 24 involving Covid- 19 – accounting for 2.4 per cent of all deaths. This is a 26.4 per cent fall from the previous week.

In Yorkshire one further death was recorded in people who had previously tested positive for coronavirus yesterday, bringing the region’s total to at least 2,300. Nationally, 89 deaths were recorded, the national total is now 46,299.

But the University of Exeter study found that the “price of life” in the UK was among the lowest at around 100,000 US dollars, while in South Korea and New Zealand, where their respective Government’s acted quicker to impose lockdown restrictions and whose response to date has been deemed most successful, the price of life was much higher at 6.7 million US dollars and 11.6 million US dollars respectively.

To come to these conclusions, the researchers completed a cross- country comparison across nine nations, and used epidemiological modelling to calculate how many lives were lost through delaying lockdown.

They then assessed this alongside the financial cost lockdown had on GDP.

This then gave them a “price of life” estimate, the amount of money individual governments were willing to pay to protect their citizens’ lives, reflected in the economic activity sacrificed.

University of Exeter business school academic and lead author of the report, Ben Balmford, said: “Seemingly, much like a bird in the hand, cash flowing through the market is worth much more than value passing through wellbeing, at least to some countries.

“By choosing not to impose lockdowns three days earlier, governments rejected saving more lives when the price was relatively high. The same logic reveals them to have accepted the implied price of life from a delay – they would rather bear the cost in terms of GDP than as further human lives lost.”

The Government was approached for comment.

Governments rejected saving more lives when the price was relatively high. University of Exeter business school academic and lead author of the report, Ben Balmford.