Shouldn’t there be a plan?

[SinkGirl]

Call me crazy, but should governments not have a plan in place for likely crises such a COVID19 (or flooding, severe weather, terrorist attacks, etc etc)?

I remember an episode of Parks & Rec where they do a mock emergency drill for a flu outbreak. They have plans written up for handling the various elements of crucial infrastructure. I always assumed that this is something that would actually exist.

It’s really alarming to see such a reactive rather than proactive response especially when we are weeks behind other countries and can see what has worked. Nothing has been put into place to protect against food shortages, NHS pressure etc.

It’s clear they didn’t have even the vaguest plan for how to deal with this, which is massively concerning. I realise that the details may need to change based on the severity of the illness, but after swine flu, SARS etc you’d think there’d be some planning for something like this!

There are no food shortages! Just panic buying.

Yes but the panic buying is what’s led to shortages in the immediate term, and the panic buying stems from lack of government action prior to a few days ago

It’s about more than food shortages however - there’s clearly been no plan for any element of national infrastructure in the event of a pandemic which seems baffling.

I agree. Of course elements of a situation are unpredictable and have to be tailored to the specific circumstances. But the government really had no backup plan for if exams had to be cancelled. No definition of key workers ready to go? They've known about this possibility for weeks if not months. Surely the department for education should have been doing nothing else.

I've got water, gas, electricity, the phone lines are working and the roads are operational,. What element of national infrastructure are you referring too?

I agree. Boris looks very out of his comfort zone. He isn;t inspiring confidence and is certainly not the Churchill he aspires to be. The Government should be leading and decisive. People at least would know what to do. Looking at the number of threads where people are asking other Mumsnetters whether they should go out for meals, coffee with friends etc, the current approach is not working. People are still frequenting bars and pubs and taking no notice of the stated need to isolate and only go out if absolutely necessary. When this is all over questions will have to be asked and the Government held to account.

• NHS (all areas - so many different things that need to be planned for here: triage, primary care, hospital capacity, redeployment of staff as needed, ensuring sufficient training within the employee base for this kind of emergency, etc etc)
• Ensuring crucial public services like refuse collection are operational
• Having a list of essential workers defined before announcing school places for essential workers
• Plans for food production
• Plans for food distribution, to stores and to the public if needed
• Increased need for social care
• Plans for supporting those who lose their income
• Plans to support businesses through financial losses
• Plans for international travel
• Plans for domestic travel
• Plans for testing for the illness

I could go on all day. A government should have a plan that can be implemented as soon as it becomes clear a pandemic is occurring. So many lives will have been lost needlessly by the time this is over.

Some of these things haven’t been been mentioned yet.