Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

Is it going to be drastic changes? Or just 'work at home if you can'?

I'm shocked to log on here and find out the outcome of the COBRA meeting hasn't been announced yet! Whatever my boss recounted earlier must have been fake news!

Surely they need to act

Could I also point out their have been fatalities in younger age groups from 10yrs old in other countries yes it's a lower risk but it's still a risk especially if there are widespread serious cases and a lack of resources to deal with them like in Italy.

I don't think shutting schools alone would work. If the local schools shut the softplays would be full of primary age kids being supervised by grandparents just as they are in school holidays. You would need other measures

People think they know better than the chief medical officer?

Is she the one that sat with Boris and told people to 'stay out of the way of health services until they work out what's going on'?

Yeah, tbh that's not good enough. All it does is serve to cement the fact that the U.K. is not doing enough. Not testing enough and not reporting accurate figures.

Herd immunity is possible without vaccine, it just means that the immunity is acquired through catching the virus and recovering, rather than through immunisation.

Charming so what if my child dies as long as yours gets to a Russell Group University

No it's apparently "way worse than flu" as people keep reminding me..
I almost lost my child to flu so God knows what this will do to him.
People under estimate the effects of flu on vulnerable people with health conditions.
As people remind me every day "This is much worse than flu".
That's in knowing I stood over his life support bed for six weeks.
Unbelievably insensitive.

I trust the WHO a lot more than the chief medical officer and they are warning about alarming levels of inaction.

@Bourne

a lot of people worked very bloody hard to make sure Y2K didn't cause any major issues. THAT is why it was a "non event".

Not God. Stop copying stupid American things

@wonkylegs thanks for that information too.
From a mother who almost lost her child to flu that really fills me with confidence.

How is the govt planning to make sure the virus spreads slowly, if they're not planning any measures to slow it down?

Usual inflammatory shit from Xenia because she and hers are above anything that happens to the general public. @Xenia is hardly a spring chicken.

The economy was croaking along before the budget. I heard a conspiracy theory that the government want older people to die as its the only thing left to boost the economy eg freeing up jobs, housing market & releasing bigger houses wout mortgages to younger people with mortgages, reduce the strain in the nhs etc

I am glad to hear that the cobra meeting hasn't concluded yet, as I was worried from the headlines that the outcome was 'do nothing'. The death toll currently stands at 10. It has gone up from 1 a day to 2 a day. It will continue to rise. We need to make sure we don't end up like Italy - with 100 deaths a day.

Heard immunity only happens when large numbers of those who can't survive the illness have caught it and died. It is not a suitable government policy unless we are to lock down the whole country and curtail civil liberties for months and months.

The government needs to mandate that everyone who can work from home should start working from home with immediate affect. Businesses have had enough warning to prepare for this now. It needs to be made mandatory that, unless they can prove a need for an employee to come into work, the employee must work from home.

What we need now is total anarchy.

@bizzybuzzy There was an SNP who mentioned these benefits, but it wouldn't be a Tory policy because they rely too heavily on the older vote. And this is a global pandemic. Nothing to do with local party politic.

Disgusted with the inaction from the government.
I thought they would follow Ireland and close the schools. Instead, just more of the same.

The government needs to mandate that everyone who can work from home should start working from home with immediate affect. Businesses have had enough warning to prepare for this now. It needs to be made mandatory that, unless they can prove a need for an employee to come into work, the employee must work from home.

This. I can do my job from home yet still no directive as boss follows Govt to the letter.

Plus he's being careless.
Had to sit with him today. He was at the Liverpool match and now shivering with cold.

He's off to a massive conference in London, flying to a vastly infected country yet doesn't see the need to self isolate on return.

As an employee with a child with asthma I feel helpless. im taking so many precautions and don't know what to do.

Why's the government blathering on about herd immunity? I thought there was evidence to suggest that you don't get immunity from having it. China are reporting that some people are testing positive again a few weeks after getting better and testing negative.

The country is facing a crisis and we've got a fucking idiot in charge.

They havn't announced yet but I can get. A vibe from people being Interviewed that they know already that they won't be acting fast to closing schools etc. It's horrible I have a parent who's lungs are damaged from asbestos. I have a son who had pneumonia last year.

Unlucky for the UK they have a different bunch of people advising and it doesn't look like they are going to follow.

Putting our families at risk now. We need to follow other places.

It's awful to think the government want to kill people off. My partner talks about conspiracy theories and I tell him off. We will never know and all that. We live in a cruel unfair world.

@Springishere2020 sorry didn't want to distress anyone apologies
I'm in an at risk category myself (immunosuppressed) but I don't like the myth that this is just going to affect old people so it doesn't matter because that's going to put more people at risk generally.
We need to protect everybody who is vulnerable as much as we can even if it does inconvenience everyday life a bit.

@MashedPotatoBrainz whether we've got a crisis impending I think we can be all agreed that we've got a fucking idiot in charge. Possibly the sanest thing anyone has said today.

Disgusted with the inaction from the government.
I thought they would follow Ireland and close the schools. Instead, just more of the same.

Well they might follow. They haven't made a decision yet. Meeting is ongoing.

I heard a conspiracy theory that the government want older people to die
Ha. If the Tories let the old people die, who'll vote for them at the next election?

His meeting has ended on sky news. The others have left downing street. So after the break I bet it will be announced