Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[marnie]

I saw a list of countries on Ekathimerini earlier for July 1st and it doesn't include the UK mate. Speaking to someone in Athens the other day it sounded like the earliest date for Brits was going to be August.

It is a scary idea to be letting people in from areas which currently have a worse infection rate than you have. Much as I'd love to be abroad for a couple of weeks, I can't see us doing it till September ( though, to be honest, I'd always avoid August anyway )

It was an article on the bbc i SAW FROM THE gREEK TOURISM MINISTER.Sorry caps.

 

[DrEFC]

How has the reporting of this pandemic been ‘favourable’ towards the government ? What is the U.K. doing that is different to Spain, France, Italy, or that goes against the advice of every ‘reputable‘ scientist. I can accept that the country was certainly not prepared for this, but that blame I would lay at the feet of May’s government, the Civil Service, PHE and the NHS......

Favourable? You don't think it has? What is the UK doing differently to Spain/Italy/France (being careful to avoid successful countries that minimised the impact of Covid, say Germany)- well they all gave us a two weeks head ups, despite this we did not instigate lock down earlier, nor did we do it as stringently as those countries, and we did not stop flights coming in, we did not track, trace, and isolate cases.
F**king stupid british exceptionilism believing either 1. we wouldn't be affected as badly when videos from Italy were begging us to take it seriously, and we could see the deaths in Wuhan. 2. We seriously didn't care about deaths, with both Boris, and Cummings previous expressing that they (not direct quotes) wished to cull the herd.
Blame the NHS, why? for being financially hamstrung?

For running a pandemic simulation (Operation Cygnus) that we failed miserably in 2016 as it acknowledged we were under resourced, one that the opposition stated why was it still hidden at the start of April when there was 'only' 400 deaths? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...vernment-publish-findings-2016-pandemic-drill
Do you honestly believe Hancock when he said that care homes were protected?

 

[Barnfred 55]

I don't disagree with the need to protect the economy, it is essential for recovery. However, statutorily, and ethically, protection of life should be afforded the highest priority - which are the two measures the Government and anyone else should be using for their strategy.

I'm well versed in decisions about acceptable loss of life and defensible decision making, but they should be applied where there is a dilemma about balancing equivalent demands.

As I made reference to yesterday, and I think it's a really prescient point about where people attach their decision making, protection of human life in these circumstances is always approached with 'wait and see' but the economy always demands 'immediate intervention'.

It's odd to hear, for example, the same voices, confidently declaring the UK can easily survive 'short to medium term' financial disruption caused by a No Deal Brexit absolutely beside themselves at the insistence of 3 months of economic lockdown.

I'm not getting into a Brexit discussion with you.

We're talking about maybe 20% drop in GDP here and a similar reduction in HMRC income coupled with a huge increase in spending and potential £100bn+ claim on guarantee. Few governments can come through that sort of hit.

 

[Goat]

You weren't alone Goat and most people felt the same and got it wrong

All I'm doing is showing how hard kit was to make the right calls back at the start of this. That post of yours was probably from about mid Feb was it?

To be fair mate at that point I knew nothing, football was my only interest.

I would like to think if I was running a country I would have been better informed, but sadly it appears not.

 

[DrEFC]

By March we were all having a pop at them. Hard not to really given some of their decisions. But the reason I'm singling out January and February is that they were your words, the government should have had it all sorted January and February

Sadly we can't undo what's been done, but at least we are in a much better place to deal with a second wave, which was the original point I was making. I think we'll need to be. This TTI app will be crucial in that but I'm not sure enough people will sign up to it

In January, apparently the Government was warned about Covid early Jan and again late, Jan. This was in one of the right wing newspapers, I forget which. Hospitals definately started to gear up in February, before the pandemic was declared officially. At this point the government still had the risk at low.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

I've never been very good reading graphs mate. Are they making comparisons with a period covering Jan and Feb.? I'm not sure what it was like where you are but down here it practically rained for that whole period. Plus it was winter so you would expect the parks to be relatively under used.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to compare with the same period last year?.

Same here mate, I was hoping someone would be able to put it into layman's terms for me. lol

 

[Barnfred 55]

To be fair mate at that point I knew nothing, football was my only interest.

I would like to think if I was running a country I would have been better informed, but sadly it appears not.

All of our top brains are in the private sector chasing the dollar mate. The standard of our politicians is very poor at the moments

 

[DrEFC]

From memory the testing arguments kicked off in March, or possibly at the end of February. Up until then there weren't many cases. Some (me included) were querying why we weren't testing people flying in from China and Italy.

It was only much later that we discovered that PHE was trying to keep the testing in house. An astonishing decision given the quality of our University's and pharmaceutical companies.

The only testing people who were ill enough to be admitted to a ward in hospital was idiotic also.

 

[roydo]

Hospitals definately started to gear up in February, before the pandemic was declared officially.

With the benefit of hindsight, as in it never crossed my mind at the time, and from personal experience, they very much were.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Same here mate, I was hoping someone would be able to put it into layman's terms for me. lol

Not me then

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

NHS England report today 121 new hospital deaths in England.

UK total hospital deaths 351.

 

[Barnfred 55]

In January, apparently the Government was warned about Covid early Jan and again late, Jan. This was in one of the right wing newspapers, I forget which. Hospitals definately started to gear up in February, before the pandemic was declared officially. At this point the government still had the risk at low.

There's no doubt we were complacent. Probably because we were lucky with previous ones.

As I said a good government would have anticipated it but these aren't a good government. I just don't think Labour would have acted so soon either as did none of our western colleagues.

I'm not saying others haven't done better once the virus took hold

 

[Jebus_lives]

I'm not getting into a Brexit discussion with you.

We're talking about maybe 20% drop in GDP here and a similar reduction in HMRC income coupled with a huge increase in spending and potential £100bn+ claim on guarantee. Few governments can come through that sort of hit.

I'm not trying to. I'm talking about how people seem to be flexible in their priorities when faced with pushing an agenda.

However the constant in UK emergency response should be prioritisation of life.

 

[Barnfred 55]

The only testing people who were ill enough to be admitted to a ward in hospital was idiotic also.

Fully agree. Down to low testing capacity which was a disgrace given what was at our disposal in the private sector

 

[Barnfred 55]

I'm not trying to. I'm talking about how people seem to be flexible in their priorities when faced with pushing an agenda.

However the constant in UK emergency response should be prioritisation of life.

Which it still is and hopefully will stay that way because we have capacity within our economy that others don't