France and UK look really shit compared to the big boys when it comes to testing numbers.
The Office for National Statistics say that CV deaths are often recorded by a doctor on the basis of 'probability' when there is no test even taken, so deaths by breathing difficulties or organ failure have a decent chance of being caused or linked to CV when it is so widespread right now, but there is no definitive way of separating cause of death by CV apart from pneumonia, heart failure, etc. It certainly doesn't help, we know that much.
By "big boys" (strange terminology) I presume you're referring to South Korea and Germany, because we're basically on par with every other country. There are some contributing factors - CV affects men worse than women, south Asian and black make up a disproportionately large figure, and low income people are more affected as they are more likely to be overweight/obese or have generally inferior health. UK deaths, particularly as the epicentre is London and will obviously affect inner-city populations worse, are tied in to at least a couple of these things. But as I said when this all started, the NHS was short staffed and on a tight budget already.
