To ask what we SHOULD have done during the COVID pandemic

See, this is what I mean. You have given this no thought whatsoever, have you?

Young people live with the old and vulnerable. The old and vulnerable need the young and fit to care for them.

Or were you proposing that anyone old and vulnerable should have been locked away to fend for themselves?

Fine - lying is possible seeing as there was such corruption in the operation. However, I respect Chris Whitty; it doesn’t mean he is right about that though. There would have been ways to make it work, we just didn’t take it seriously until it was too late.

Couldn’t the food continue to move and the drivers stay in quarantine hotels?

We have more transport and food supplies going through our country so would have been very difficult to close borders or have full quarantine

I know it wasn't the point they were making, but the default to the nightmare scenario means you raised it yourself. It's quite a well worn path at this point!

For the people who now refuse to go along with the government as a matter of principle, if there were another pandemic now that put them at greater risk, presumably some of them would choose to modify their behaviour because they felt threatened and others wouldn't. Part of the reason others wouldn't is because of lack of trust. There'd have to be some person or institution that people actually believed. It's not immediately obvious who that would be. I think if another pandemic came along now, half of the internet would say it was down to the covid vaccine.

It does also need to be factored in that some non-compliance wasn't borne of disagreement about medical advice, but rather about who the government had chosen to prioritise. As an example, when my children and others in the family were considered unworthy of school and socialisation whilst others got the whole caboodle with better ratios in 2021, I decided they weren't going to be any more collateral than I could help. So we had playdates, and plenty of them.

Now I agree that the greater the number of contacts that happen, the higher the risk of transmission. That's the science bit. But the question of where my children ought to fall on the priority list isn't science, it's politics. And I disagreed with the great genius scientist Boris Johnson about how much of their welfare ought to be sacrificed. There were plenty like me.

Good lord. You’re suggesting Whitty lied to the enquiry? Seems highly unlikely.

And it’s been explained many times why Aus/NZ could close their borders and the U.K., with a land border with the EU and dependency on the movement of lorries of food across the channel, could not. Not without starving the population anyway.

Good lord. You’re suggesting Whitty lied to the enquiry? Seems highly unlikely.

And it’s been explained many times why Aus/NZ could close their borders and the U.K., with a land border with the EU and dependency on the movement of lorries of food across the channel, could not. Not without starving the population anyway.

You can answer my question first.

Once you've clarified what you mean and set out the reasons why, I'm ready to be persuaded. Though asking why the UK couldn't be like a group of pretty geographically isolated, hard to access islands isn't going to do it.

You said this in reply to me earlier. Do you not think he was told to say that? How come Aus and NZ could do it but we couldn’t? Genuinely asking btw.

I'm not sure any Western country pulled off Track and Trace. It was much more suited to Asian societies with different attitudes to data privacy.

Is that impossible?

Just to be clear, is this an actual suggestion that Whitty isn't giving his genuine truthful view to the enquiry, but rather has been put up to it?

You said this in reply to me earlier. Do you not think he was told to say that? How come Aus and NZ could do it but we couldn’t? Genuinely asking btw.

You said this in reply to me earlier. Do you not think he was told to say that? How come Aus and NZ could do it but we couldn’t? Genuinely asking btw.

You don’t stop a disease spreading be stopping people with the disease from spreading it?

Chris Whitty confirmed at the enquiry it wasn't possible to do as Aus and NZ did.

You'd not stop the spreading with quarantine

Chris Whitty confirmed at the enquiry it wasn't possible to do as Aus and NZ did.

You'd not stop the spreading with quarantine

Quarantine. Like 8n every other country.

You mentioned testing people at airports

I meant what did you want to happen to those who were a positive? Not the tube I assume. How many could you accommodate a day in quarantine v how many arrive at all airports in the UK?

Why was it feasible for Aus and NZ then?

From Heathrow/London airports? Mostly onto the tube. I remember people talking about it at the time.

Don't mix social issues with Covid. UK has very high incidence of DV and child abuse anyway. Covid exacerbated already existing issues everywhere around the world not just in the UK. Had the UK listened to the WHO advice in time and locked down when it should have and completely, it could have been like in NZ. Short lockdown, testing and isolating new cases straight away. Life could have returned to normal sooner.

And who would have looked after these vulnerable elderly and ill people? It would have been impossible to keep them segregated if they need care multiple times a day. Those saying they should have stayed at home are basically saying ‘They’re worthless and should have been culled’ because that would have been the end result if we’d have allowed everyone else to go about their business.

I knew two perfectly healthy people who died of Covid in their 30s. It wasn’t just elderly or CEV people dying back in 2020/21.

The amount of children who died as a result of abuse from parents, stepparetnts, care givers was despicable and many of those children were known to social services.
Abusers would use covid as an excuse to not allow social workers in the home to check on the children.
Domestic violence cases went through the roof and more women died at the hands of their abusers.
I'm not sure what the rise in child sexual abuse was but I imagine significant.
Ultimately we locked victims in with their abusers and that to me should never ever happen again.

I think covid was very tough to navigate because it was unknown and people, healthy young people died due to covid so I do think there needed to be a shield of protection for the elderly and vulnerable. But it was catastrophic in the way it was handled. Instead of politicians trying to help their pals profit, money should have been used wisely and advice from people who had some answers taken.

I think any child known to social services, even prehistoric cases should have had to have attended school as a bare minimum but I'd have had the schools opened and only vulnerable students or those with vulnerable parents battling illness or themselves really vulnerable should have had been allowed to home school.