To be very concerned that Boris Johnson said this

[Worriedmum54321]

From the Guardian:
Responding to the argument that a more stringent lockdown should have been imposed sooner, he said: “Don’t forget, it’s a very very demanding thing to ask a population to do – very tough – and so I think it was completely right to make our period of lockdown coincide as far as possible with the peak of the epidemic.”

The problems with the great brit public is that they arent as compliant as other countries

I don't understand this perception. If anything we have been much more compliant than was, apparently, anticipated. There is no reason to believe we would suddenly have behaved differently had we gone into lockdown a week earlier.

According to the government graphs @judy italy counts care homes.

Sorry @JudyCoolibar i am not sure why i addressed that you! Or why i said it! Is too early.

There have been reports of some people not complying in all countries. I don't think the British are exceptional either.

For those mentioning the magic money tree there isn't one it's called borrowing

Who are we borrowing from at the moment, then?

unfortunately the NHS has only avoided being overwhelmed by getting rid of most of their normal workload, people who are now having treatment and diagnosis delayed, and many of whom will now suffer or die as a result. I am not sure that really counts as not being overwhelmed! Really we would need the NHS to have spare capacity for covid on top of enough capacity to avoid cancelling any urgent treatment for other things

Really? So the NHS should be able to operate as normal and have capacity to deal with a once in a lifetime global pandemic in order to be counted as 'not overwhelmed'

Yes because every business/organisation has capacity for unprecedented events

www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusUK/comments/gadh4d/28th_april_uks_daily_death_toll_compared_with/

This is my favourite ( wrong word i know) chart. I believe it tracks only hosptial deaths and you can clearly see the lockdown date.

I wish the government had not kept trying to put comparisons with other countries it appeared to me very arse covering.
Journalists need to pick up on the care home scandal as well! Very poor!

I very much doubt you are over the peak.
For the outside looking in it does unfortunately look like many British people are not complying.
Once the real numbers are revealed the UK will be the worst, I fear it will drag on much longer, stopping now will be more detrimental to the economy longterm.
I think he means over the peak on the NHS ventilators are freeing up, ready for more victims.

He's a populist. He doesn't want to do unpopular things, even if it's the right thing. He should never have got anywhere near leadership.

I get what you’re saying but I just read it as a comment on timing.

before lockdown there were people withdrawing their children from school

Pointless question. Most people didn't have the choice as they still had to go to work, the law required that their children still went to school, and no-one was social distancing in shops

IIRC school attendance was down a lot in the week leading up to lockdown and I know several companies that started getting as many employees WFH as possible during that week.

Given that and the fact we’ve been more compliant than expected I don’t really buy the argument that we couldn’t have locked down earlier because we’re British and aren’t compliant.

That by Johnson made absolutely no sense whatsoever. None.

those of you whowishedfor an earlier lockdown, did you initiate your own lockdown?

I was able to yes, and elderly DM locked down first week in March following medical advice, other elderly relatives made just a couple of last trips to shops after that. DP was able to lockdown before lockdown but only by a few days because had to work, his work didn't really want people to wfh until govt advised it.

We did this for our own protection in the main, also wanting to reduce risk of spreading but we knew that required a wider lockdown. The benefit of an earlier lockdown for the country can't be gained by a few individuals choosing to lockdown early.

Emerald, we are definitely over the first peak. There were over 900 deaths per day April 8th-10th, we had less than 500 in hospitals yesterday. (which is the direct comparative number as only hospitals were quoted previous)

I also think locking down earlier would be pointless
We didn't have widespread enough infection and that then means many more peaks as you remove restrictions and just means they go on for longer (probably in various waves)

I also understood that Spain didn't record care Home deaths?

There are too many factors to do direct comparison. Italy and Spain are both smaller populations in bigger spaces. Italy really had one huge outbreak in the north of the country - if you the the deaths there vs population, the numbers are horrific.

We have a huge population is a small space. We are also a major international hub- Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe so shutting that down is a HUGE thing. Comparing us to Greece where they give no shits about the economic impact is not helpful IMO

"The timing of the peak is a function of the timing of lockdown"
Precisely, I've no idea what he's on about. I suspect he doesn't either

I think he knows what he's talking about but is hoping we don't.

Sadly, some people still fall for his bullshit.

It's all fine because we are saving the NHS and we are saving the pensioners of this country.

I watched the clip of the press conference when Boris said this, sadly the faces of the scientists were out of shot! I am sure PV and CW are both very accomplished at looking inscrutable but still, could there have been a slightly tensed hand or eyebrow?

just make sure to CLAP for the NHS - if you do not you are shameful.

agree, if you look at Worldometer, the spikes in France are where they added the Care home deaths.

Italy and Spain are both smaller populations in bigger spaces.

I don't think this is a big factor for Italy - it might have a larger surface area but a lot of that is sparsely populated mountain areas.

He could of just shut the borders the moment he knew it had it spread. He did not.
Don’t think they have a fudging clue about anything.

clap for the NHS - that is all we need to do (and by the way do NOT go out of your front door - we are saving our NHS).

@Bubblebu - not sure why you keep telling people to clap and if you are joking or not.

I bet that when lockdown is lifted and we're busy celebrating, they're going to really tighten the legislation when our backs are turned

Then we must keep an eye on the slippery bastards and call them to account if they do.

It's happened before. The 1986 Public Order Act was considered draconian at the time by people involved in civil liberties, but a lot of the public were so pissed off by some riots, gatherings of new age travellers and peace camps that they supported it.

We're stuck with it now and it makes legitimate protest a lot more difficult.

Questions need to be answered as to why Cheltenham Festival went ahead. The betting industry put pressure on the Government for it to take place.

We were due to attend but decided against it because of COVID. Seems like we had more sense than the Government who should've stopped it taking place.

And yes, we initiated our own lockdown before the Government's official too late lockdown. We hadn't been out for 10 days when it started, apart from one supermarket visit early one morning when it was quiet.

This Government have a lot of questions to answer.