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?

WHO reports that...

The experience of 🇨🇳, 🇰🇷, 🇸🇬 and others clearly demonstrates that aggressive testing and contact tracing, combined with social distancing measures and community mobilization, can prevent #COVID19 infections and save lives"-@DrTedros #coronavirus

Why are we not doing these things??

Absolutely not he has chosen the economy over people's lives.

Me too @Bluntness. I'm removing my children from school. I'm high risk, my children are high risk. I'm sat here dumbfounded by the actions of our Government right now.

Throwing the old, sick and vulnerable into the pit doesn't feel like the right to do.

I bet the oldies are a bit miffed they voted him in now.

Because as a country we've become hardened to the suffering of the most vulnerable.

Why should the healthy and economically productive suffer to protect skiving benefit scum the most vulnerable?

The sad thing is that coronavirus virus will kill many of the "its only a flu" generation too.

We're idiots who dont learn from other countries mistakes and successes

In the UK it will spread more quickly due to a lack of measures, the hospitals will get overwhelmed, people will be unable to get treatment and will die. The aim with the measures taken in other countries, for example in Norway, is not to stop the virus completely, but slow down the spread so that there isn't a huge number of people all needing hospital treatment all at the same time, which means that hopefully less people will die in the course of the virus making its way through the population. It is all about hospitals and resources for treating people, not about making the virus go away.

It does seem the who have directly contradicted the uk approach. It makes no sense for the Uk to be doing something different to the rest of the world and to be directly going against the who advise. However the explanations the uk are giving do make sense. They don’t want a second wave, and they want immunity in the herd, which seems will come from young people

Hashtag butcher boris on Twitter is going strong

mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/ButcherBoris?src=hashtag_click&f=live

I bet the oldies are a bit miffed they voted him in now.

I spoke to my parents. "Boris is right weve all got to take responsibility for our own health and judge whats right for ourselves" They're already self isolating... in their comfortable 4 bed home and final salary pension....

They we're shocked when i told them id be fined if i so much as removed DS from school...

The who is sitting right now on their press conference begging countries to test and find every case.

Isn’t there a global shortage of testing kits though due to a low supply of a certain chemical needed?

Also nobody else seems to agree. Plenty of other European countries on lockdown too.

We need measures to “flatten the curve”.

That said - a lot of sporting authorities and businesses are taking matters into their own hands. Even without the Gvt banning them, there is going to be a reduction in the number of large scale events and fewer people travelling to work and wfh instead. So maybe that will help, without the Gvt having to mandate it.

The WHO doesn't think so. Chief of the Lancet doesn't think so. I think I know I trust more. We've done NOTHING to stop the spread so NHS will be overwhelmed and we're only testing once people are hospitalised so we'll have no idea what's going on

@Purplewhitelie

What is an ELE? A quick google hasn't helped me...

Here is some cattle vaccine - not the same strain obviously. Has to be done regularly as the virus changes.

Maybe our one is more stable (no pun intended).

Did anyone else do the interim "if you have symptoms stay at home" approach? I don't recall hearing of anyone, it feels like most places jumped from isolation if you have had contact with someone/been diagnosed to pretty large closures without much in the middle.

Not saying it's right, just asking if anyone is aware if this approach - basically acknowledging their will be many untested people who have it and trying to address that - has been used at all?

The chief scientist gave some numbers yesterday, I can't find a full transcript but from memory I thought he said that they believed the isolate individuals advice resulted in a 25% lowering of the peak, and similar if you isolated household? And that isolating elderly didn't so much reduce spread as death rate

I'm not convinced his 2 sciencey sidekicks are happy about the plans. They look decidedly uncomfortable.

But government scientists who go against government wishes have a nasty habit of crashing cars or having unfortunate accidents.

No I don't think he's doing the right thing as his model is not evidence based on covid19 it's just behavioural science. I think Sir Patrick is a bit of a loose cannon but has been hired to take the heat for Boris.

Don't forget Boris announced on This Morning that he was thinking about using the "take it on the chin" approach. I think he's lost the plot.

PurpleWhiteLie - No idea of the accuracy BUT there was actually someone on BBC Scottish news last night (a scientist, but I wouldn't like to give her the incorrect title as I can't recall!) saying exactly that, that this one seems to be slower than usual to mutate. Something to do with it checking its own replication...Will try to find.

Yes that would me interesting to know Stat.

Be

I think it's decidedly odd that our advice is apparently different to the advice other countries have, and it puts me in mind of the "experts" scene in Thick of It, when Tucker talks about knowing what an expert is going to advise before they advise you.

And in my decidedly non-expert opinion, the approach is a big risk given that it's a novel virus and we don't fully know what we're dealing with.

But time will tell, hopefully the fears of those of us who are worried will be unfounded.

No I want the UK to take the same line as other European countries now.