COVID-19

They established the Health Protection Agency whose job it was to keep us prepared for this sort of event which the Tories subsequently abolished in 2011. If you recall the swine flu epidemic and foot and mouth disease issues occurred under the last Labour government and they did a damn sight more than just suggesting we take it on the chin and hoping for herd immunity. They were better prepared, had actually funded the NHS properly so it wasn't running at 85% capacity like Jeremy Hunt got it up to, hadn't spent a decade fighting pitched battles with most staff in the NHS, do you want me to carry on? We have literally just had to get the begging bowl out to donald fecking trump for spare ventilators and people are out here thinking we've responded to this well.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-alan-johnson-health-response-pandemic-a9447956.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=Feed


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/uk-will-be-europes-worst-hit-by-coronavirus-study-predicts

 

An estimated 9 million will be put on furlough. Wow.

 

I bet you keep nipping out for a ‘breath of air’ just so you can have your temperature taken again.

 

Bar the last sentence I completely agree with that. What I would ask is can the NHS realistically be what many presume they would like it to be? In many ways its not even 'national' anymore in the sense of nationalisation. Big parts of it are run by the private sector now and as you allude to this has been done under the guise of all the major parties support. My argument with the NHS has never been the front line workers, my mum recently received fantastic care from doctors and nurses alike, many from all corners of the world. But to get here to the stage where she was rushed into hospital has coincided with 18 months of pure farce under the umbrella of an organisation that doesn't seem to know its arse from its elbow.

At the moment the because of the situation it finds itself in the NHS is beyond question. But once the virus has been dealt with serious questions need to be asked of politicians about the NHS. More funding would be advantageous but its but to me that's not as important as ensuring the funding currently received is spent in the correct way. There isn't a magic money tree that can be shook to supply funding.

 

I think the closest number I would put on it is within the next 2 weeks to a month and even then thats a tentative guess. We've a long way to go before this starts to get better at all unfortunately. I reckon that we're going to get alternating levels of lockdown until we get some kind of cure or more likely vaccine, which means going between this and a bit less locked down is gonna be the new normal for at least another 12 months. The key is working out who's had it and working out how immunity to this thing works. Once we know both of these things we can start getting people who are immune back to normal life as quickly as possible to keep things running as best we can till a vaccine is created.

 

And let's add the extra unemployment numbers and self employed to it.

This is one of the reasons why we will have an exit plan.

 

You have to remember this is a world wide lockdown to a certain degree. If it's cost the Uk over say 2 billion a day then countries like India will not be able to cope!

Also you have to factor in mental health, education, domestic violence etc.. the government are not that stupid to think we need to be in this lockdown for much longer.

As for this peak. We could be in the peak now for anyone knows but due to the lack of testing nobody knows. We might and it could be big MIGHT not go through a bad peak like first thought.

 

The HPA merged with similar departments within the Health Service.

As bad as Swine Flu was worldwide, the UK suffered less than 500 deaths in total. There was no need for the government at the time to make decisions on if and when lockdowns should be implemented. They also didnt have to deal with the number of hospital admissions over a short period of time, as we are seei g now

I am not 100% defending the current Government on its handling of this current crisis, but I do question whether any other government would have fared better in dealing with this.

Virtually every government in the world has struggled to deal with this rampant disease.

 

If some of the statistics are correct we will have the highest amount of fatalities in Europe and will account for 40% of Europe's total fatalities by August. If this comes to pass virtually every other govt in the world will have dealt with it better, bar trump who seems low key determined to kill as many of his own people as possible by being a dick and letting Jared Kushner do anything more important than make the teas and coffees. As I said the word now is unity and staying positive to get through this lockdown and beyond, but once we're in the clear as I said above, we need to be asking some serious questions of our response.

 

Most of the leaders around the world have hid behind scientists.

 

Do you still think Trump will send Americans out this weekend? Because of the economy?
America just reported the biggest daily death toll of any country today

 

No I don't.

But he will within a month.

 

He'll open back up before its safe and get more people killed because the sundial he's working to is the stock market numbers not actual people. Its election year and his one big claim all the time has been the economy and stock market. If coronavirus nishes the US economy and stock markets off like it has been, Trumps got nothing to shout about come election time so you can bet your bottom dollar the americans will be some of the first out of lockdown.

 

Trump’s been totally shown up by all this. The worst of all western democracies. His daily press conferences are almost laugh out loud funny...It’s not funny though, it’s sad, really sad.

 

But surely the scientists are the ones the government should take notice of?

 

Bang on. This has been a problem for just about as long as there has been an NHS. Hospitals used to be run by a combination of doctor and matron, i.e. medical people, but by the 60s they were turning ever more to "professional" administrators with not necessarily any medical, or even biological, knowledge. One such administrator came in at Taplow. First he discovered that the female ward(s) used much more loo paper than the men's, and figured there was wastage here he could eliminate. My Aunt had to tell him the facts of life re. the female anatomy and loo-going process, at which he became somewhat uncomfortable! Later this same chap was quite happy to authorise spending money on stainless steel soap dishes, which are good but not as medically necessary as suction machines, upon which he didn't want to spend a few more pounds.

But I could tell similar stories about the Canadian health service -- there would be enough money if it were to be spent wisely. Nonetheless, whenever I or family members have needed the health services, here or there, they've come through.

The problem is a general one, across the world and across all sectors. Money is spent neither wisely nor well, and administration has become too divorced from the work it is supposed to administrate.

RCB

 

Oh well, at least I got to see Professor Brian Cox on video whilst reading all this.

 

To start with but they are not leaders and don't make form decisions.

They've said no vaccine.. the world can't wait until they is one.

A few weeks leaders need to shine and step up. Problem is as I have said situations like this shouldn't be about a government show.

You've to understand scientists as they don't understand themselves. Some now questioning the impact in closing schools during this lockdown saying it's pointless.

Scientists now say should wear masks.

Scientists are extremely clueless until 99% right. They chop and change their mindsets all the time to get their outcome. We can't have scientists lead.