To be flabbergasted by this Government’s incompetence.

[Cam77]

*2000 of 500,000 NHS staff tested.
*Germany performing nearly TEN TIMES the number of tests as the UK. despite the WHO saying for weeks and weeks that they key is to “test test test”
*Continuing shortages of basic PPE for health workers (who are being threatened if they speak out)
*Thousands of people still cramming on to public transport, with not one metre let alone 2 metre distance.
*The Government failing to sign up to the EU ventilator scheme.
*Being one of the last Western countries to close schools and implement any kind of lockdown.

I know it’s tough for everyone but this is a level of criminal negligence from the British government. Absolutely shocking.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/28/exercise-cygnus-uncovered-pandemic-warnings-buried-government/

Exercise Cygnus uncovered: the pandemic warnings buried by the government

Exercise Cygnus dramatically exposed the gaps in Britain’s pandemic response but its ‘terrifying’ findings have yet to be published
By
Paul Nuki,
GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY EDITOR, LONDON and
Bill Gardner
28 March 2020 • 9:00pm
A woman makes PPE

Ministers from across government were seated, ashen faced, in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR). On a large flat screen, epidemiologists from Imperial College London were showing a slide which detailed the scale of the epidemic that was enveloping Britain.

The first cases of the virus had been confirmed in south east Asia two months previously. Britain reported its first cases, imported from returning travellers, a month later. Now there was widespread and sustained domestic transmission and the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared a global pandemic.

But it was not the pandemic itself that was causing those gathered in Whitehall to grimace but the nation’s woeful preparation. The peak of the epidemic had not yet arrived but local resilience forums, hospitals and mortuaries across the country were already being overwhelmed.

There was not enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for the nation's doctors and nurses. The NHS was about to “fall over” due to a shortage of ventilators and critical care beds. Morgues were set to overflow, and it had become terrifyingly evident that the government’s emergency messaging was not getting traction with the public.

Cygnus, it took place in October 2016 and involved all major government departments, the NHS and local authorities across Britain. The modelling for the outbreak was prepared by the same team that is tracking the all-too-real Covid-19 pandemic now. And as the Sunday Telegraph reveals, it showed gaping holes in Britain’s Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) plan.

As Simone said previously, when the Telegraph is pulling up the govt you know they have fed up.

I'm surprised at the Telegraph criticising the government too! They are usually Boris's mouthpiece! Maybe because this is something that can harm rich as well as poor, whereas normally when it's only harming the vulnerable they aren't concerned

The uselessness of uk, usa and brazils governments is of no surprise at all

I'm surprised at the Telegraph criticising the government too! They are usually Boris's mouthpiece! Maybe because this is something that can harm rich as well as poor, whereas normally when it's only harming the vulnerable they aren't concerned Good point, I was surprised at their reporting but you have explained it.

The Telegraph put the boot in yesterday, I was astonished. You know things are bad when they stop whitewashing.

Which delivers superbly for folk with a job, because the first question you ask when offered one is about the health care package that comes with it.

And fails miserably those who don't.

I'm surprised at the Telegraph criticising the government too! They are usually Boris's mouthpiece! Maybe because this is something that can harm rich as well as poor, whereas normally when it's only harming the vulnerable they aren't concerned

Herd immunity was all well and good and would sacrifice 500,000 of the 'most vulnerable' people and that sounded perfectly fine if 'most vulnerable' were the usual poor working class.

Then the Tory Party faithful realised in slow terror, "That's us!".

Herd immunity was all well and good and would sacrifice 500,000 of the 'most vulnerable' people and that sounded perfectly fine if 'most vulnerable' were the usual poor working class.

Then the Tory Party faithful realised in slow terror, "That's us!".

I can actually believe that.

Now that the US has woken up to the fact that this is real and not just a cold it means that the whole of America will be looking to buy what PPE there is as well.

Not buy - STEAL!
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/global-battle-coronavirus-equipment-masks-tests

An earlier Post mentioned Herd Immunity. Until a vaccination becomes available, in about 18 months time at the very earliest (as I read), then there is NO immunity to this virus, and herd immunity is scientifically the only way forward, unless you want to stay in lockdown forever. That is, the virus will eventually die out once 60 percent of the population have had the disease, because there will be nowhere for the virus to go
The aim of the lockdown is not to stop you from getting the infection, but to slow the rate down, enabling the NHS to have the facilities / personnel to deal with it, and therefore more people would recover.

THIS ^ .

There was never a real suggestion that we just let the virus tun riot, pick off the weak and leave the strong immune - that was just how Boris people interpreted it.

It has always been medical policy to protect the vulnerable and have a controlled exposure to the virus that could be dealt with effectively.

since when do we excuse a thoroughly incompetent job just because someone else might have done a bad job as well

Also this ^

None of us know how Corbyn would have handled this, but Boris has been rubbish.