Does anyone think Boris is right?

[Emcont]

I'm not saying I do. But I'm curious to see if anyone agrees with the strategy they're going for as most of what I'm reading is against.

Pot, kettle, ....

Sorry, mark that wasn’t for you.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon WHO advise. They can't dictate. They are pussyfooting around the British government by giving statements hinting that the UK strategy is very wrong. If they could dictate, they would have put us on lock down.

@alloutoffucks Italian society had collapsed... yet.

Wait til their government defaults on its debt unless Germany bails them out

I think compliance is obviously going to be a problem given the average mumsnetter believes they have a better handle on the situation and the solution than one of the world's leading epidemiologists.

You are scaremongering. Again I will repeat this is not the zombie apocalypse.

They haven’t been in in interview in in ilock down for even a week yet, bethis isn’t going to 2 weeks, this will go on for at least 2months, look at Wuhan

Okay if you are happy for a minimum of 500,000 dead and lots left with long term health problems, all so our national debt is a bit smaller, then keep arguing that.
Most of us would rather have less people die. Half a million people is a lot of people. It is how much die in England and Wales every year from all causes. Car crashes, suicide, heart attacks, cancer, everything.

allout are you seriously accusing other posters of scaremongering?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon Yes. My figures of half a million dead are based on the Government's own figures. Why would repeating what our own Government is saying be wrong?
NO ONE is saying there will be a zombie apocalypse, except some people on social media scaremongering.

Do I trust WHO or Boris. Er..WHO of course.
Boris and co have not planned or prepared. End of. And bullshitting the British public that they are prepared as well. I'm not five. I can see right through the bullshit we're being fed.

The voice of reason, you are indeed.

Do you believe the UK always do what's best for the poor kids in Syria for example?

The WHO is a political organisation. It will not upset its donors - is included I am sure.

What help will the give to African continent to test every bloody person, and contract trace.

How is it feasible to do that in many countries now?

I am not saying the WHO is wrong and the UK is right.

But I do wonder if they are being realistic in what they are saying. They are not the ones on the ground.

Above should be the UN and not UK but I think UK deserves criticism too!!

Also with regards to UK response, I don't think it's been as good as it could be. I do trust the experts but don't think they are getting the message across well enough, or even enough times. The part time PM and not enough press conferences is doing untold damage as those who are against it have lots of time to whip others into a frenzy.

WHO says he’s letting the fire burn. He stands alone in his approach. But Churchill he ain’t.

I am not saying the WHO is wrong and the UK is right.

But I do wonder if they are being realistic in what they are saying. They are not the ones on the ground.

Who in the UK is on the ground?

Have they been to China or Italy?
The WHO do have a better picture than them of the reality in the badly affected countries.

Random I agree. Tracing is good at the outset. It very quickly gets out of hand, not for lack of trying.

I agreed with tracing at the beginning.
It worked well for previous epidemics. This is a different beast, because it seems that it can indeed be transmitted before symptoms appear. And it's too mild in most cases for people to even identify they have it.

It's not rational to implement isolation measures too soon, but it's mad to introduce too late when you've already seen the results elsewhere.
It's not like the UK is the first country to get this and is going blind (like China did, and Italy to some extent).

Some robust measures need to be implemented or you will end up with the need for quarantine when the situation is already desperate.

Remember that at the moment the numbers are growing exponentially.

The WHO advice is to contact trace and test, encourage social distancing and wfh, close schools, cancel events - basically do everything.
This virus needs hosts to survive and infect other people. If there is no one else to infect, it dies.

I agree and think we should do it now.

That was to Lweji

But that is the message the WHO continues to give and it is entirely appropriate in some countries and I wish them well.

But really in italy, Spain, France, UK that is what we need to focus on?

It's gone too far for that.

I am concerned about the speed the UK is moving but in many ways I think we are being scared into doing what is needed.

Other countries are shutting down but families still meet up - what good is that.

The only options are to stop it and lockdown for an extended period of time and close borders for a significantly longer period once virus under control.

Or we let people get infected.

I genuinely don't know the answer but we have what we have in the UK and we need to try and make the best of it. And make our own decisions that will protect our families.

The WHO advice is to contact trace and test, encourage social distancing and wfh, close schools, cancel events - basically do everything.
This virus needs hosts to survive and infect other people. If there is no one else to infect, it dies.

While this is true it would be virtually impossible....Before any country could end the lock down everyone would have to be 100% sure the virus is not in any country in the world.. otherwise as soon as border re open the whole thing starts again.

I think at this point, even though the WHO haven't said it explicitly to my knowledge, every health official and epidemiologist knows we won't eliminate this.

In that sense, the UK government is right in saying that we need to delay the peak.

The lockdowns in the badly affected countries are meant to alleviate their health systems.
To bring numbers down to manageable figures.

My point is that isolation measures need to be taken BEFORE it reaches dangerous numbers for the health systems.
We can project numbers and calculate when measures need to be implemented.
If the UK government is doing that, it's not apparent to me. I'd expect them to explain their plan to the public and the WHO too.

I expect we'll be expected to work from home for a long time and to keep extraordinary hygiene standards until indeed most of the population has been exposed.
I'm avoiding herd immunity because we simply don't know how immunity works here in the medium to long term.

Some reports suggest the virus can come back in the same patient, and this is not encouraging.

Yes - not a fan of Boris at all but I am for the plan we have in place.