Do most people think this has been handled very badly?

[agentstarling]

Even though people maybe disagree with my other thread about it MAYBE being exaggerated I think most people would agree it has been handled very badly. I only found out that it was their strategy to let it go through the country from Nigel farage (who I think is self-isolating lmao). They haven't communicated anything at all about shutdowns etc and BJ seems to be like a rabbit caught between the headlights and has show zero leadership. They haven't explained how people should eat drink when isolating how they should manage their kids etc. I don't think he will be voted in again maybe even Corbyn would have been better.

Yes I agree - shockingly badly handled.

To stand there and say we will all lose loved ones, yet to do nothing to prevent it is callous in the extreme and the blood of preventable deaths will be on his hands.

I hope he is out - he and Dominic Cummings - but they seem to be able to do (or not do) and say whatever without it having any impact on them.

To stand there and say we will all lose loved ones, yet to do nothing to prevent it is callous in the extreme and the blood of preventable deaths will be on his hands.

Calm down. The fact is, more people will die and the whole country coming to a standstill will make it more difficult for the people who need help the most.

Hysteria, is more dangerous that COVID-19.

The economy crashing will have far more effect on people, especially the poor, than this virus

They haven't explained how people should eat drink when isolating how they should manage their kids etc.

Why do we need to be told how to do this? (Genuine question, not having a pop).

To be honest, after listening to that press conference on Thursday and then Patrick Vallance on Sky on Friday, I'm of the opinion that Vallance has his own agenda, Boris hasn't a fucking clue and Chris Whitty is the only one I would possibly trust.

Very badly. We are also about to see what a decade of austerity has done to the NHS.

we need to remember when the talk about the 1% death rate. The vast majority of those deaths would be elderly with underlying health conditions.

If those very people were on lock down for 4 months while the rest of us got the virus, the death rate would be much much lower than 1%.

The virus doesn't just pick 1 out of every hundred people to kill... it just so happens 1 out of every 100 that get it will tend to be an elderly person with underlying health issues.

This is the same with the need for ventilators etc being at 5%. it is the type of people that catch it that makes these figures so high. so if we decrease the amount of elderly with health conditions that get the virsus these numbers should not be so high!

You actually think the government should tell us what to eat and drink and how to ‘manage’ our children? I’m stunned that people think this way. Take some responsibility for your life.

Nope I don’t think it’s been handled badly, but whenever I try to give reasons I get shot down and attacked. So just sticking to this basic ‘nope’ now

I'm not a fan of Johnson, far from it, but he's following the advice of the chief medical officer and a team of experts. I'd rather he did that than bow to pressure from armchair commentators or social media.

They're not 'doing nothing'. They're following a plan of action that some people, inevitably, disagree with.

His comment about people dying was obviously intended to bring home the seriousness of the situation to those people who were still spouting about how it's nothing to worry about, being blown out of proportion and so on. Based on the data from other countries who are ahead of us on this, that's inevitable.

Hysteria, is more dangerous that COVID-19.

I am not hysterical, and am working, my dc are going to school etc.

But I am following what is happening in Italy and it is very frightening. Their death rate is very high, it is people of all ages that are needing ventilators, and they are having to make choices as to who lives and dies due to lack of equipment. Other European countries are putting in social isolation measures but we aren’t because??? We know better than all of their scientists?

The rest of Europe and other affected countries view us as mad and irresponsible. I sincerely hope that they are proved wrong.

the whole country coming to a standstill

The lockdown in Italy has not meant total standstill - people go to work, and are allowed out for trips to the supermarket, chemist, post office I think, and essential medical visits. (I don’t know how they are coping with children being off school however.)

It is sad that there will be avoidable deaths here before we put in place the same measures.

Historically, it’s being better handled compared to the last two pandemics of swine flu and Spanish flu. That’s really all we can expect.

And I agree with @letmeinthroughyourwindow I’d rather leave this to the team of experts than what people think on social media.

To stand there and say we will all lose loved ones, yet to do nothing to prevent it is callous in the extreme and the blood of preventable deaths will be on his hands.

What makes you think these deaths are preventable?
The death rate from this virus are the numbers that die despite modern medicine. They are inevitable. You need to accept that this virus is not a common cold.

STOP talking nonsense! The whole country isn’t going to fall apart if everyone self isolates for 4 weeks. My province in China where I live and work was badly hit. We all self isolated for a month. It is not what you think! ALL supermarkets are open but staff wear protective gear. You only go out when absolutely necessary to stock up on essentials. No visitors toyour home and no group meetings. Simple! There were no food shortages here because people didn’t panic buy as they actually have faith in the government. Nobody I knew had a bad time - if anything everyone quite enjoyed it. Within 3 weeks the numbers had dropped to almost 0 and now we have had no new cases at all in the province (of 88 million people) for over three weeks. It’s NOT necessary for the whole country to ‘shut down’. Dont be so dramatic! It’s what is needed to stop the virus. It’s the only solution. And yes some people won’t be able to work from home or won’t be able to cope without a months wage. This isn’t for us to worry about, this is what the government should be sorting out! Here they hired a team of 8 people to every apartment complex (in the U.K. could be every street?) to be on call to help anyone who needed any kind of help - they’d arrange a doctor for a health check, deliveries for those who couldn’t, etc. rent and bill payments were halted. All companies had to pay a basic wage, etc. if the U.K. would just try this then the virus could be over in a matter of weeks! I am so infuriated to see how they’re (not) dealing with it. Everyone needs to wake up - shocking to see so many people discussing whether to go on their holidays! Don’t you realize that if this doesn’t stop then at some point other countries will start closing their borders to UK citizens?!

And NO the deaths are NOT inevitable! What an ignorant thing to say! Simply not true at all. Elderly people in their eighties and even nineties have been cured of the virus. Please don’t spread such dangerous false information.

Agreed @KittyJune.

Interview with Italian doctor:

“To stand there and say we will all lose loved ones, yet to do nothing to prevent it is callous in the extreme and the blood of preventable deaths will be on his hands.”

It’s very sad but nothing can prevent this, the virus already exists and will be fatal in very ill people. The best we all can do is prevent the virus coming into contact with them

Whatever BJ and the govt. do, people are unfortunately going to pass away. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The 1% death rate is very much influenced by how this is handled and how good your health care is from what I understand.

One thing I do know is that you cannot necessarily handle this the way China are doing so. I lived in HK and Singapore for 17 years and people there are very community focused and act in the best interests of everyone. In the UK we are very individualistic and although we think we do, we do not think group first, self second. Chinese people will do what they are told to do and I don't mean that rudely at all. Some Brits will buckle down and get on with it. A lot won't and will just be a massive pain in the arse. The government know this and are trying to manage this in the best way that fits our culture IMO.

Scepticism and alarm regarding Boris Johnson’s approach.

I trust the government on this.

It’s a lose lose situation for them. However they play this, people will die, hospitals will be overwhelmed, and they will face media and public criticism. It’s inevitable. You could write the headlines a month from now without even knowing what will happen.

I have my views, but I’m not a social behaviour scientists, epidemiologist, virologist etc. And even those scientists, individually, would not have the right answer. Someone has had to take their reports and synthesise that, and I trust them over me. They may not be right, but they have a higher chance of being right than I do.

@PlanDeRaccordement well there’s over 200 scientists and medical professionals from the UK who’ve wrote an open letter to the government criticising this approach - do you think you know more than that collective of professionals? If so why? That’s too many professionals not on the government’s payroll, and not including the WHO who think we’re taking the wrong approach.

I think they ultimately, and I can understand, they wanted to protect the economy and took a gamble to do that in the first instance hoping that based on some evidence they had it wouldn’t be too bad in terms of the spread, that hasn’t worked it looks like it’s going to be so they’re up shit creek!

Thank you for that @KittyJune good to have some first hand experience information. And countries are already closing their borders to us as they’ve seen how we’re royally fucking it up!

Pretty sure this has been the conversation in Number 10

m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNjFIwRYEIo

There is no answer go in too hard and people will not conform.

The obvious way to stop it is a lengthy lockdown but implementing it would be impossible. People nowadays are so selfish and think they can't be told what to do. Unless you get 100% buy in from the public all it need is a few breaches and you are back to square 1.

Look at spain they shut the school and they all fucked off to 2nd homes and spread CV even more.

Agreed @PhilCornwall1.

Article about two open letters that have been sent to the government- one written by scientists, the other by behavioural scientists.