to think Dominic Cummings has to go?

[RoosterPie]

Dominic Cummings apparently travelled to his parents house while meant to be self isolating due to covid symptoms.

Given what happened with Neil Ferguson and Catherine Calderwood, AIBU to think his position ought to be untenable?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/22/dominic-cummings-durham-trip-coronavirus-lockdown

actually dcs wife says they were in london together. she had great ideas for single mums too:
'Get out the doctor's kit and make it your child's job to take your temperature. Any game that involves lying down is a good game.' On the end of their ordeal, Ms Wakefield said they had emerged from quarantine into the 'uncertainty of London lockdown

DC resigns, BJ gets a new aide. Simple. Well that would appear to be the most sensible solution but others would go far further than that.

But clav he didn't just on with working online. He was really sick for 10 days.

He obviously wasn't planning on being that sick - Boris Johnson was apparently working from home the first week, Matt Hancock only had mild symptoms.The 10 days is an exaggeration by his wife I think - perhaps it was only 7 or 8 days.

Shortsally you know as well as i do that fines are being issued by the Police as a last resort, had Cummings been stopped on the A1, he would have been told to turn around and go home, a fine issued only if he refused.... either way he was breaking the law.

But of course, had he been stopped, your "break the transmission" would have gone out the window as the Police would have been put at risk talking to him, as would any medics attending a vehicle accident or the AA/RAC if the car broke down.

Johnson for once in his life was very clear "this is an instruction, STAY at HOME"

What will reduce the mess and save lives?

Clarification of the guidelines which since yesterday have been 'Do what you think if it isn't too much trouble, it's up to you'.

What will reduce the mess and save lives? That's what's really important.

I’d imagine not completely undermining you own public health strategy in an attempt to defend someone who clearly broke their own guideline comes fairly high on the list. Sending out a clear message that this was completely unacceptable would be a start.

The 10 days is an exaggeration by his wife I think - perhaps it was only 7 or 8 days.

She certainly exaggerated about leaving their Covid 19 quarantine in London. I'd say that was an exaggeration of about 250 miles.

the regs are:

going out with virus - fine
going to second home- fine
going to visit elderly - fine
travelling - fine
getting child care - fine

theres no other way to interpret it- family first- lockdown is over.

^It's different from chief medical officer going to a second home for fun.
Or the science guy breaking household rules and having intimate relations with his married lover...^

It’s not only different; it is way worse! The ‘the science guy’ had one visitor

Are the police dishing out fines to all those reporters and photographers swarming round DC this morning? It's all a bloody mess.

Ferguson had already had it and recovered. Which is very different to travelling when knowingly infected which is a whole other level of risk.

Johnson’s defence of Cummings calls the credibility of the whole cabinet into question. He is so weak as a leader that he can defend him?

Yes short his wife published a story in the Spectator about how ill Cummings was. And then gave advice to other parents that if you find yourselves (as a couple) very ill it works in entertaining a young child to get them to play nursemaid and that their son was loving giving Ribena medicine off a spoon.

She did not at any point state they were in Durham, she indicated they were alone in London. She didn't once state they had childcare next door (which they travelled 260 miles with covid to use if they became really ill and have actually posted they didn't use)

That the point here.

It's gone beyond "he travelled with covid". It's a whole web of lies and now deflection.

He did a daft thing. He's ain't the first person and won't be the last. Own it. Apologise. Give your reasons, as it it was bad judgement but not intended to be.
Don't treat the British taxpaying public like a bunch of thick shits.

She certainly exaggerated about leaving their Covid 19 quarantine in London. I'd say that was an exaggeration of about 250 miles.

I’d imagine not completely undermining you own public health strategy in an attempt to defend someone who clearly broke their own guideline comes fairly high on the list. Sending out a clear message that this was completely unacceptable would be a start. I would agree with that.

Police stopping anyone or chatting anywhere will have been at risk, spreading covid through the act of talking. The police person could have it and chat and give it to the person they stopped or vice versa.

I don't know what you mean by last resort? Hundreds of fines have been issued and if dc has broken the law, fine him.

Unless you don't believe he should be fined?!

Are the police dishing out fines to all those reporters and photographers swarming round DC this morning? It's all a bloody mess.

But DC himself was not 2 metres away from the blond woman walking next to him on camera. Sorry no idea who she was, but assume a colleague.

It's getting weird, yes I agree.

Fine him, etc. Still don't think he needs to loose his job though.

The whole approach has been an utter mess. But I'm not sure how much of that mess I lay at the doors of the gov or the medical '' experts '' whose sole expertise it is to advise.

It's tricky.

"he wasn't infectious"

Why? How does anyone know he wasn't infectious? How could he have possibly known that?
Because he wasn't (at that point) symptomatic?

The incubation time can vary between individuals, and it has been known for ages that you can spread the virus before developing symptoms.
The first household member to contract the virus is not necessarily the first to show symptoms.

So given his contact with a proven coronavirus case, it is entirely plausible that HE infected his wife - not the other way round.

So it is likely that they were both highly infectious when they made the journey.

She also certainly exaggerated about leaving lockdown into what was the uncertainty of lockdown London. I'm not sure how you walk out of a property in Durham into London

Should Read

It’s not only different; it is way worse! The ‘the science guy’ had one visitor, presumably well, to his house, the sexual angle is irrelevant. The chief medical officer, also well, traveled to her second home in Fife, a short distance from Edinburgh. Both wrong and both now gone. DC with an already sick wife, and the likelihood of becoming sick himself, which later proved to be the case traveled a whole 260 miles. The were already in the group told to self isolate. The risks would have been obvious, needing to refuel, needing a toilet break, the possibility of breaking down. He really needs to go. Otherwise I think the whole of lockdown is in jeopardy.

As it turned out, he was infectious. And in any case, he was exposed to BJ who had CV so should have been quarantining anyway.

But DC himself was not 2 metres away from the blond woman walking next to him on camera. Sorry no idea who she was, but assume a colleague. Have a look at the footage. The blond woman was a reporter.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52789404

"After the uncertainty of the bug itself, we emerged from quarantine into the almost comical uncertainty of London lockdown."

Poor love. She must have felt even more uncertain when she realised she was actually in Barnard Castle.

Even if he goes, the damage is done because government has put out message that you can “use your common sense” and diluted the message of staying at home. DC going won’t change that. The government’s defence of this has been lamentable.