" I must level with you, I must level with the British public, many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time."

[YoursTunbridgeWells]

Quote Boris Johnson.

Lots of people will die.

They find billions when they want to (Brexit anyone??) but for this they bring out the "take it on the chin" slogans.

You do know they've allocated £12 billion pounds to deal with the impact of the virus? £7 billion for businesses to keep them afloat and to give sick pay from day 1. £5 billion and more if needed for the NHS and social care.

Why does anyone suddenly think Johnson knows what he is doing. He has proven a specialist at looking after number one and prepared to say or do anything that is in his interests.
Why would anyone consider a well known liar to suddenly become honest? What’s in it for him?

I'm sorry to hear I'm 'monstrous' for simply saying how some people feel.

many people feel the same to be honest, see

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3247851-Not-to-want-to-live-past-my-80s

@crazydiamond222
The Irish government is centre-right by British/EU political standards. But they are not Tories, ie they don’t go after the poor and the disabled and scapegoat immigrants as the go to quick fix. And when it comes down to it they still prioritize peoples lives and dignity over the wants and demands of big business and corporations. Hence the different response.

But it is very difficult to have a sensible discussion about mortality and end of life issues in a place like this.

Why was nothing done before it reached the UK?
I feel like if someone in my family dies from this I should be able to sue the government for being negligent.
I know that sounds ridiculous but do they not have a duty of care?
We are an island so it would've been very hard for the virus to reach here if they had suspended flights when they realised it would kill a lot of people
Why are people acting like its inevitable?
We watched it progress for about a month and done nothing.

@Gfplux
Not many people do. Suddenly needing to renegotiate trade deals and logistics with the entire world in the next 10 months is only number two priority on his to do list. He craved the power of PM and now he has it. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

It's the matter of factness of it all.

We could have done so much more.

We were blessed with a window of time and observation/learning that Italy did not have. An island that still didn't ban flights or check passengers.

That allows stupid football matches and dog/horse shows to go on.

That pushes presenteeism at work. To the point where bosses won't less us WFH even though we could.

That jokes about loo rolls and "it's just the flu" and good old Blighty, even when we can see what is happening in Italy.

So yes, people will die. But far more than if we'd acted. This is what shakes me to the core, the utter waste of lives.

@Jobseeker19
Everything you say is true. Imagine if this outbreak had started in Europe. Would China have sat back and watched the show for a month before passively allowing it to spread throughout 50%+ of their populace? They’d have closed their borders and not thought twice about it.

@jobseeker19 it was probably in the country before we even knew about it. Thousands of people fly in and out every day. You can't just leave thousands of people stranded just in case. Surely then you'd be upset if one of your family members caught it from being stuck in an infected country.

No you can't sue the government for negligence.

@middleager
Yep. We got what we voted for. A bunch of Useless privileged incompetents.

Look, Boris Johnson doesn't have the monopoly on eternal life. He and his family, loved ones, friends are just as likely to be struck down by Corona. In fact a journo even asked him what personal steps hes taking given he is having to interact with lots of people and he didn't talk about himself. I thought he was decent by not making it all about him

If politicians skirt round the issues they are given shit

If politicians say it like it is, and speak realistically, they are still given shit.

If anyone listened to Nigel Farage on LBC he was a complete arsenal deliberately drumming up public hatred and not allowing callers get a word in edge ways if they deigned to agreed with the approach BJ and the Scientific experts (Chris Witty and Sir Patrick Vallance) proposed.

What Nigel Farage failed to grasp is we are in a crisis and the Govt has to use scientific models to inform their strategy. Medical Science and Epidemiology doesnt take account of individual people, human beings and their loved ones. It's about humankind, disease, herd immunity and collective survival. It isn't palatable, it's hard hitting, but its these difficult decisions that have to be made to get through this. Plus people forget they can individually choose a route to meet specific needs of their family if they don't agree the government is doing enough. If you don't want to attend that Premiership football match or that West End play just don't go!

arsehole

I don’t understand why they keep talking about ‘the peak’ as if we can’t do anything about it? Surely if we start the social distancing measures earlier rather than later, we stand a better chance of fewer people catching the virus?

The point is though - we do need most of the population to catch the virus, and therefore develop immunity to it. If (in theory) we banned all travel to the UK and made everyone here stay at home for 2 months, we may prevent many people catching the virus. But then as soon as “normal life” resumed, the virus would start to spread rapidly again, because it is present all over the rest of the world.

I think it is important to try to prevent vulnerable people getting it, so elderly people, and those who are immunosuppressed for other reasons would do well to self-isolate as far as they can. But the more people in their communities who catch the virus, recover, and develop immunity, the more protected the vulnerable people will be when they do venture out again.

None of it is ideal, but I think the situation is being handled correctly.

Yep. We got what we voted for. A bunch of Useless privileged incompetents

For goodness sake. Even in the face of a crisis like this, people will use it to push their political agendas

Get a grip. SeriousLy.

People thought the West would slowly decline over the next two to three decades as China and the BRICS continued to rise. But this is it. It’s over already. China will come out of this stronger than ever relative to the West. The great irony is that they’ll not only be stronger economically, but have done it while exposing the Western political system of leadership as totally ineffectual, and the human rights argument as an empty shell. China murdered hundreds in Tiananmen Square in the name of maintaining social harmony. And they clamped down on this virus with a vengeance in the same name. The West, meanwhile, is gearing up to sacrifice millions over the next 6 months, all in the name of the sacred 9-5 and keeping the money flowing through the capitalist system over a business quarter or two. Follow the money. Everything we believed about our country was a lie.

Exactly..someone up thread claiming Corbyn would do,better. So eager to make what is a very difficult issue a matter of party politics. And Christ we are seriously fucked if Corbyn is the answer

@Graphista pull your head out of your arse! They’re throwing money around left right and centre. A far left government wouldn’t have stopped this, god knows the utilitarian arseholes that would have formed government had labour won the last election would probably be embracing the virus, letting it spread, instructing the NHS not to treat anyone that isn’t very young and healthy all the whole applauding themselves to drastically reducing the number of people requiring pensions, healthcare and housing ‘for the greater good’.

@Cam77 where have you been the past three years. China is headed for a major economic crisis.

@LittleCabbage
The point is though - we do need most of the population to catch the virus.
Quick someone tell Xi Jinping! Those idiots have spent the last three months trying to stop people catching it, when they should have just let everyone get on with it with just ten million or so deaths as collateral damage. What were they thinking?

I spoke to a consultant specialising in acute care a few days ago.

He told me that when suspected flu cases come in they are always tested to see if it is flu. Normally the split is about 50/50 flu / not flu. This year the majority have been not flu... so the question obviously becomes what is it? However these same people were not being tested for Corona.

I think there are thousands more cases than anyone wants to acknowledge

@Jobseeker19 if they’d prevented all movement into the U.K. for the course of the outbreak which apparently could last until June if not longer they would have failed in their obligations to citizens overseas. Oh, and there’d be massive food and medicine shortages which o suppose could have killed more people, I don’t know what do you think?

I cried. My husband called me an idiot again and saId he can’t cope with me being upset for months, how loving

Look - I loathe BJ but in this I think he’s sort of right.

People are going to die - I’m immunosuppressed & I’m likely to get very ill if not die. Well if it’s my time it’s my time. No one can live forever no matter what we want.

I’m scared, of course I am, but I starting to deal with things at home & do clearing out. Keeps me occupied & will hopefully be less for my loved ones to deal with if I go. I’m mid 50s but with my conditions unlikely to live much more than 70/75 anyway.