Our government has dealt with the Coronacrisis so badly.

[pontypridd]

Did we even need to lockdown?

Newsnight suggests that it wasn't necessary.

Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad had the lockdown been managed well. But now millions of people in this country will have their lives ruined. Millions will lose their lives as a result of this mismanaged lockdown.

We are coming out of this now with more mixed messages and confusion. People are taking it upon themselves to decide to end lockdown - as the government, once again, fails to take the lead.

I feels afraid and scared to live here. I don't trust that our government will ever know what they are doing or be able to protect us.

Yes we needed to lock down sooner

Like Norway with its 209 deaths who are going to be eased on Monday

If we had locked down earlier we would not have such a high death rate and we could have had a shorter lockdown.

Totally agree, we should have locked down sooner, prepared properly, quarantined people coming into the country.

Have to agree. Should’ve locked down earlier. I was freaking out the moment the newspapers announced the mother and teenager from China who had been taken to hospital with Coronavirus (They had been staying in York. Oh and the guy who self quarantined in a hotel in Liverpool). Whilst I am not blaming those individuals, I knew this was going to snowball like a bastard. I wished for a swift resolution but we reacted way too slowly. Like as if it wouldn’t affect us. With all our knowledge, technology, science, fucking first world common sense - it was a giant fuck up. I blame the govt, and mainly Boris.

Absolutely. The February response was dire. I am incredibly angry at the wasted weeks where we saw what was happening in Europe and were still told to Wash our hands.
It was plain back to a layman that school kids retuning from Italy should be isolating for 14 days, symptoms or not- but no, let send them back into school unless they feel ill.
Many people from China and italy flying to the UK with no checks at all, travelling all over London to get home spreading it as they went.
Back in early and mid Feb was where the vast majority of this spread happened, coming from outside the UK. Government seemed to do nothing to stop it coming in. That’s where all the deaths and destruction of lockdown have come from.
I would love to be proved wrong and have more faith in the government but it’s all so shrouded in mystery and we are not told anything!

I believe that your thoughts will be echoed by the majority of the adult population.
I personally think that if we shut the borders for a short time, any people who live in UK returning made to isolate for 14 days, we could've missed all of the past few months

I personally agree that we should have locked down sooner.

A family member was in Italy when it all kicked off there and I was so worried about the spread. It felt so urgent and I couldn't understand why the government felt none of that urgency.

Locking down late has been ineffective, I think. It's too late to contain it properly. Or it will take many more months to contain it and then test.

And now that we've got no clear leadership (again) on how to come out of this - people are taking it into their own hands. It feels as though everything is starting to crumble and all the sacrifices we have made will be for nothing - when the Virus takes off again.

Phrases like "as we are coming out of it" and "when the virus takes off again" aren't helpful are they?

We're not coming out of anything. The virus hasn't gone anywhere

@pontypridd I think your above post is spot on.
I was speaking about this with my counsellor last week- I have OCD and have some concerns about DD going back to school when lockdown is lifted.

I'd said to her, as a not very smart person, my personal preparations for my family, were a good 2 weeks ahead of the governments advice for the country. How can I trust their advice on when it's ok for my daughter, 29 other pupils and a teacher are ok to spend an hour in a small room together? How can I trust that when we have the second wave that they'll do better?

When the very people who we should be able to trust for advice got the virus themselves.

It might read like ramblings of a mad woman, but honestly i believe that the government's preparation was quite far behind most families preparations for themselves.

Government should have acted sooner and harder. Short sharp lockdown.

I do agree that lockdown in UK should have been initiated much sooner than it was.

In my area, State borders are closed, travel interstate needs official permission. Travel within the states regions also needs permission.

Citizens returning from overseas are quarantined in hotels or an offshore Island, at government expense, without question, for two weeks.
I'm sorry Boris Johnson Covid 19, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference to his thinking or his plans.
I'm sincerely glad that I don't live in the UK right now.
A 'planefull of approx. 300 returning citizens arrived yesterday. All will be quarantined without exception.
I realised yesterday that travellers can arrive at Heathrow from North America, without any testing and are allowed to go to their destination in London without follow up.
This is partly why UK has such a high death rate due to Covid 19.
When I last checked the death rate was 30,000+, the highest level in Europe!
This does not inspire confidence in the govt.

@Apirateslifeforme totally agree.

I'm in Melbourne and while our numbers are pretty good, dh and I have already agreed we'll be sending dd1 back when we think it's ok to do.

If I was a parent who had to send my DC in I'd hope parents who didn't have to would act the same way.

I'm sick of hearing all this shit about lockdown.
There are thousands of communicable diseases, from colds to chicken pox to influenza to AIDS and many more. All of them can be reduced by locking people in their homes and not letting people contact other people, including their close families. But we don't do it - why, because as a society we don't think it's a price worth paying.

With Covid 19 the government has determined that it is a price worth paying. Only history will tell us if they were right.

I'm sceptical.

I don't think the government believed the virus

But at least it's shown how vastly shit the government are and how poorly funded the NHS is.

So now they can change that.

Right?

We didn't have a Lockdown. Just some businesses closed, and guidelines regarding self-isolation. Our borders haven't been closed either. & If I chose to go out 3 times in 1 day I could - nobody's monitoring, I've not even seen police around here. So as said - this isn't a Lockdown.

In my home country it was total lockdown including public transport. Plus curfew. Borders closed - 2 private planes flew in, both were turned back. Essential journeys only, shopping and medical with permission slip necessary, from checkpoints. Some still managed to go out more than once a day but if caught you are fined, 3 times and you're hauled before magistrate. Very strict, but it worked. There are now zero Covid cases at this present time.

Boris is irresponsible but the man is like Teflon, nothing sticks as aside from Covid-19 he says what people want to hear. So I should think he'll make his excuses and Tories will be just fine, as per usual.

Our 'Lockdown' was herd immunity policy without openly saying so. The fallout of all this will be terrible for many, emotionally and financially. It wont get rid of the Tories though.

I can't believe there's talk of a VE party tomorrow. Not at this time when people have lost family and friends, some have lost jobs, some may find they don't have a job to go back to, people are worried about sending their children back to school, some will be worried as they've no choice, they have to work. & furlough will stop soon enough.
I'm not too worried and will take my chances out there, I'm still working anyway. But I can understand some are very worried, and sadly nothing Boris has said or done is reassuring.

Too little too late. Then massive incompetence and doing the wrong things when they eventually realised they better do something.

I think England could have locked down sooner, but the real significant thing that stands out in that you're still letting people in to the country and not keeping trace of them. My cousin and her boyfriend, who usually live elsewhere in Europe, were allowed to travel back to Heathrow and leave the airport with zero testing or tracing. Having said that, I think initially the government (world!!) were acting on misleading information so they weren't as worried, as were under the impression community transmission was rare. Hindsight.

I'm worried. In Australia there's been 97 deaths and restrictions are just beginning to lift. Although we are aware there will be outbreaks, because we've seen what's happened elsewhere it's natural to be concerned.

Agree. But Boris said other countries are envious of us with how we handled it , and people believe him. Our country is a farce and we are the joke of Europe.

Boris is a liar and a cheat. The blame game has started so he’ll blame the science.

At least we’ve got the next shitshow to look forward too Brexit. No deal here we come.

This cult of personality around Johnson is proving fatal.

But I thought it’s the problem of transmissions in hospital and care homes that’s the problem really , would locking down a week earlier change that

That news night item talking about the problem with care home staff not getting sick pay so purposefully going in ill as they needed to be paid are the sort of things that need tackling as that’s played a massive part towards the 3 week extension this Sunday

Agree OP. I'm so tired of how this is unfolding that I can't even put it into words anymore. Even the app tracing, we're nearly 4 months down the line. Australia closed its borders to China early February. S. Korea used tracing app within weeks (I understand there were severe privacy volitions though). But the point is, they acted, early.

Our lock down has been full of mixed messages, senior figures disobeying their own rules, lack of clarity, herd immunity.

I hope they are voted out, but I don't think they will be.

The problem is that when Trump banned flights in from first China, the Europe, and then UK, he was criticised by the WHO.
However, I personally think this is what we should have done.
I believe the economic downside of a lockdown causes so much harm, that I am unsure if it was ever the right thing to do. But maybe we should have banned the large gatherings, Cheltenham, Crufts, etc
Most of the deaths are now in Care Homes, and I am not sure how these could have been avoided, and probably depends on the setup of each individual home, many of which are private.

But Boris said other countries are envious of us with how we handled it, and people believe him.

This is what is so extraordinary. How deluded do you have to be to think that anyone is envious of the handling of a crisis that has led to the greatest amount of deaths in Europe?