Is Johnson doing the right thing?

[jasjas1973]

Is he? i've changed my view on this recently.
Do we just have to accept some very harsh truths?
Getting some very clever people to advise him and judging by how successful partial lockdowns in other European countries have gone, these don't seem to work.

We haven't got an NHS that is anything like as well equipped/staffed as say an Italy, France even Spain and they are not coping, maybe he is just (for once) being honest?

I think his method makes a lot of sense but it just is so discouraging to hear about how dire the situation is. I think they need to be more open about their reasoning in order to get people to trust this method as it is so different to what common sense would suggest doing and what every other country is doing.

It's a delicate balance. Destroying the economy against protecting the old and sick. I'm glad I don't have to make the call.

I don’t think he is no. I think at the very least schools should have been closed yesterday.

People either aren’t taking this seriously at all or they don’t really understand what they need to do. Official advice may be to isolate with symptoms of a cough/cold/fever but talking to people at my workplace today no one is following it.

Getting Coronavirus done.

Its not sitting right with me.

Oh and I don’t think government want to shoulder the responsibility of the consequences of people isolating. They want us to make that call which is really hard to do when the government isn’t really backing you up.

why is it so much easier for people to stockpile than to wash hands with soap?

No because in 6 weeks the NHS will be overwhelmed.

There has been no measure to slow it.

That means many elderly and sick will die inhumanely.

Unacceptable they deserve better.

school closures will only work if all children stay at home
not all children will be able to access online learning many homes will at best have 1 device computer between all their children some will have none so the poorest will be the most disadvantaged
other children may have to go to grandparents however unwise this is and there it is even more likelyy that they may not be able to access learning online
many people will not be able to print off worksheetsas they may not have printer or supervise learning in a small space
online learning can work when people are set up for it but let's not pretend every kid has an ipad or even access to one; some might have android tablets others an old PC running on windows 7 etc etc

I want restriction on travel. It’s ludicrous but too
late now.

No

No

I bloody hope so. Because if he isn't then we are fucked.

I'm worried about the poorest in society if schools close. Extra heating costs, no school meals and lost wages - how will families manage?

Many in our scientific community don’t agree with him...

Absolutely not

I understand what they are trying to do. But I’m listening to the who conference and it’s clear they really really don’t support our approach. They want every country to move quickly and aggressively to turn it back. They don’t want it to be allowed to linger and spread or countries to fail to act.

So I’m not sure we are doing the right thing here.

i dont think Dr Michael J Ryan Executive Directior of the WHO agrees with him either. Is anyone watching the press conference on Sky News now?

children may have to go to grandparents however unwise this is.

I am a teacher , my dd is at my school. I have old parents that live with us.

Am scared at every lesson change over

The government is relying on information from behavioural scientists to nudge us into self isolating and social distancing.

They know if you try a blanket ban in the UK, people will either stupidly or otherwise find a loophole to get round it.

Example of this is the woman who turned up in a private hire vehicle at hospital with covid-19 as she was told to use a private vehicle to get to hospital.

I dont think there is necessarily one "right" course of action here. It is unpredictable and whatever they choose to do will be bad for some or worse for others.

I think the government is in a "no win" situation here.

If they put strict measures in place, people cry out that they're overreacting and ignore the advice. See on here already how many people are "self isolating" but still taking the dog out for a walk. So many people still saying "its just like flu" and not taking it seriously.

If they dont put extreme measures in place then people will, with hindsight, say they should have done XYZ.

There has been no measure to slow it.

If most cases are passed on by people who are symptomatic, and if people follow the guidelines and stay home when they should and if it isn't all getting passed around the schoolyard and taken straight home to families - then maybe he is right and it will slow things enough to make it copable with.

Of course, for every one of those things that doesn't happen the depth of the poo we are in creeps significantly higher.

And I am concerned by the evidence that 1, most cases are passed on by people who do not yet have symptoms, 2. there are a large number of people who think self isolation either doesn't apply to them or that it won't matter if they just pop out to walk the dog, or that they simply can't afford to take time off work so won't and 3. children appear to be just at good at catching and passing on the virus as adults.

I don't pray. But I am wondering if it might help.

I don't think so. I haven't got any faith in him to do the right thing generally though so it's no surprise I think he is dealing with this all wrong not at all action needs to be taken. People need some definite answers about what happens going forward. So far we have 'your loved ones are going to die', 'wash your hands' and 'stay at home if you have a cough or temperature'. None of those things give me any confidence. Particularly the 'loved ones going to die', that was especially cuntish for him to say, even if true.

I'm broadly in favour of what he's doing. I think we could go a little further; stronger recommendations on WFH, for instance,to keep slowing the spread but broadly I think it's about right. Guess we have to wait and see which approach works but the current approach does make sense to me.

I don't think full on locking everything down would work. How long for? You lock it down now and not many people have had it (relatively speaking.) It's managed to spread from a pretty small number of people coming in from overseas so it would not need many people to still be carrying it when restrictions were lifted for it to just start all over again in a population with little immunity. It would still be spreading a little as some people would obviously still be working, moving around and so even if you lockdown for 6, 8, however any weeks there will still be actively infected people, probably many more than we started with.

Problem with government approach as someone who works for two companies - the first decided to enforce WFH at the beginning of last week. The second decided to enforce WFH today.

Both companies are international but only the second company has had employees who have had covid-19.

They know if you try a blanket ban in the UK, people will either stupidly or otherwise find a loophole to get round it.
Yep. Some paraphrased quotes I have seen on here today
"I definitely only have a cold so I dont need to self isolate"
"I live in a flat so even if I'm self isolating I will have to take the dog out for a walk"
"Its fine to go out when you're self isolating as long as you dont go close to anyone"
"Its just like flu"

People apply their own logic to ignore sensible advice.