" 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.

Schools will close due to staff shortages as every teacher has a cough or cold this time of year.
Then the schools closing will be the fault of the head and not the government.

@crazydiamond222 Corbyn is pretty utilitarian, I’m pretty sure he’s welcome a cull of the weak and old.

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?

As the first country to deal with it, they did the best they could with very little information. They understandably tried to contain it. Now that it has become clear that we could not prevent the virus spreading all over the world, we have had to accept that we cannot contain it.

And so the plan is now different.

TBF the politicians aren't points scoring over this. Labour MP on TV at lunchtime saying how pleased he was with the cross party working and supporting the govt stance.

@Reginabambina
The first time I read that was in about 2003 when I first went to China. At that time Chinas GDP was about the same size of the UK. It’s now five times the size and rising. I’m sure it was being said a lot earlier than that though.

@LittleCabbage
China has limited deaths to below 4,000. Why is 10 times or even twice that number acceptable on the UK?

Two days ago I was laughing at a few Chinese international students I know, who decided to take the risk of travelling back to China to get out of the UK with its lax response. How wrong I was!
100,000 in a continent sized country vs, what, 50 million on a small island?

Why is everyone so sure it's over in China? They haven't come out of isolation yet, what happens then?

@Davincitoad well, you're going to have to buck up a bit. I mean what are you actually crying for?

@Cam77 they’re in the midst of a credit crunch. Smaller organisations both government and government owned are defaulting all over the place. They’ve tried their best to cover it up with new lending but you can see it on the outside. They’ve had to abandon projects. Employment is becoming a huge issue, an ageing population is also increasingly problematic. They’re really, really not doing well economically, no amount of state interference is going to prevent a recession even if it does delay it but of course that fines at a price.

Follow the money. Everything we believed about our country was a lie.

What? Did you not know this already? What exactly did you believe - that our government cares about us? Lol.

They care about profits, 9-5, keeping everyone earning, paying mortgage, paying tax and buying plastic tat. That's what pays their wages and keeps share prices high, that they invest in. Now people won't be able to do that for a few months, and it's all come crashing down.

Maybe this will make people realise that a system with NO slack, that requires public services working at max capacity and people living hand to mouth and working 24/7 isn't sustainable.

Re China: I heard the radio today talking about how everyone is watching China and Hong Kong now - as they come out of lockdown, there's a very strong possibility that the virus will start to spread again, because the simple fact is that there isn't immunity in the population. Why are there so few indigenous people in S America? Because the vast majority died from viruses brought by the Europeans. It wiped them out. There's no guarantee that the lockdown in China has actually solved it.
Yes, our response is not adequate. But as others have said, who knows what an adequate response is. By all accounts, life in ITaly now is barely tolerable; can you imagine people who think they need to stockpile toilet paper coping with lockdown?

They care about profits, 9-5, keeping everyone earning, paying mortgage, paying tax and buying plastic tat. That's what pays their wages and keeps share prices high, that they invest in. Now people won't be able to do that for a few months, and it's all come crashing down.

This. They are only interested in the economy and their own investments.

@YoursTunbridgeWells just wanted to say hope you're ok. I've seen your posts on a few threads and know how worrying this is for you (and me).

I have read the full thread but I saw you mention you have an auto immune condition. My mam has a whole array of them and was prescribed hydroxychloroquine as part of the treatment for her arthritis. I'm not a doctor by any means but I know this is a drug being trialled as a treatment for covid-19 as its primarily an anti viral. It could be worth a chat with your gp or consultant. Two birds one stone n all that

I'm no Boris fan, but some of what he says makes sense. For example staying at home and self treating with mild symptoms- what would you have people do ? Clog up the health service and spread it ?.

Haven't that should say

@Horehound lovely response! Prospect of losing loves ones doesn’t phase you then?

@Davincitoad of course. But I'm not going to cry at the prospect of it. I would be very worried if a family member gets it and then is subsequently very ill from it/dying but there's no point crying today at the prospect of it..

@Horehound can’t help I care about them. Situation is dire.

You all need to put this in perspective for the sake of you and your families’ mental health. Only 0.00002% of the population have died from this virus and most (if not all?) of those had serious underlying health conditions. The chances of you catching it and dying from it are absolutely minuscule right now.

@Davincitoad it is. But would you want a family member crying today worrying for you?

Yeah if the Labour Party were dealing with this, they would probably tell us that it's OK because Covid 19 identifies as common cold and therefore we have nothing to fear

But Dong some of us on here have underlying health conditions- some people are worried understandably.

But Dong some of us on here have underlying health conditions- some people are worried understandably.

It’s understandable that people with underlying health conditions are concerned - but for others, there really is no need for alarm or panic. Take sensible precautions of course, but otherwise keep calm and carry on. As I say, the likelihood of you dying from this virus at the moment is 0.00002%. In other words - absolutely tiny!

This is not a government issue. It's up to the researchers, the mathematicians, the health care professionals to inform the civil servants who tell the politicians what to mouthpiece. God forbid such responsibility was left up to the infant Boris to work out for himself.