Is anyone else angry and embarrassed right now ?

[Sapphiresunrise]

For the developed and resourced country that we are, we are potentially going to be overtaking Italy and Spain by the looks of things.
Australia and other nations have death rates in double figures. They were smart to close borders and even close regions. Canada the same. Denmark, etc. The list goes on. South Korea have the situation under control.
We were warned about this. I feel like majority of those deaths could have been avoided.

Considering people travelled to Cheltenham from across the country I think it was more a gathering in a Petri dish of virus to be spread around the UK. The same with Crufts, people from all over the world come in for it, what could possibly go wrong.

ten if the borders were shut no one would have got here by plane, train or automobile.

@alloutoffucks
Exactly.
When I commented on what China was doing I was apparently a moron or some kind of puppet of the Chinese state who loves brutal, totalitarian regimes.
We had plenty of opportunity to look and learn from other countries, (not just china) but we didn’t take advantage of the information that was there.

Yes exactly our government did not learn. And now we get told that no one could have foreseen what is now happening in the UK, which is a lie.

all I really don't know. I live locally and at this time I haven't heard a lot. I just don't what impact it has had. I suspect quite a few infected. But locally and I stress only locally (in a neighbouring county) I have not seen much chatter about Cheltenham. I know people went (I wouldn't have) but I can only give my opinion even if it's not the Mumsnet opinion

Very angry and embarrassed. I suspect failure to follow South Korea's lead was/is rooted in a sense of superiority 'great' Britain if not just out and out racism, neoliberalist capitalism and individualism. This government's contempt for the NHS over the last decade is being shown for the disgrace it is.

Most people who get this get it mildly and some will have no symptoms. So I would not expect people to necessarily know anyone who had been very ill or died of it. But even people infected but with no symptoms can infect others. And in the case of events like Cheltenham that may have made it spread faster to areas where the virus had not reached at that point.

We are not the worst and will not be anywhere near the worst affected when it’s all said and done. The USA and India are potentially sitting on wipe outs of entire sections of society due to some of their actions / inactions.

I agree India will be worse.
I suspect we will be the worst in Europe though.

I'm not sure how the usa and india doing even worse excuse us doing very badly.

all but surely that's where the WHO should be focusing.

Not on the UK where the horse has bolted but where we also know that our universal healthcare will save many lives.

But on countries like India where the restrictions imposed to suppress coronavirus are worse and will cost more lives than the disease itself.

I'm intrigued about how Sweden escape criticism when they are still not on lockdown now.

iced they are not British..........

I have no idea what WHO are doing now. I think our government have fucked it up too badly and now we are just going to see the consequences of that. WHO were giving advice to the UK that our government ignored.
I don't see why they can't give advice to the UK and multiple other countries at the same time. It is not one or the other.

Dies anything think it's ironic that the testing kits ( of which the health minister has put an order in for 1 million are being made in.... China!

@IcedLimes I live in the UK with my family. People are dying here. I am a UK voter. My focus is the UK.
This is not a theoretical debate for me about which country is worst. It is hoping at the end my family are all still alive. So when I realised our government were not responding, I read a lot so I knew what should be happening, and what I and my family needed to do.

I think this thread shows that there is sometimes a perception that other countries are doing things better, but that isn't necessarily the case.

For example, yes Australia has closed its borders, but that only just happened. We could easily be where the UK is now in a week or two. And as for being slimmer - not true unfortunately, we are easily as fat as the UK or probably more so. And far from being a trusted decisive leader, the PM has been critisized for at first saying that he would still go to football games, and later saying going out to buy puzzles was an essential activity.

As for how China is dealing with it, some say the lockdown is working great and there are no new infections. Others report dead bodies lying in the street and infected people being shoved in body bags still alive. Which is true? Could be neither, or with such a large country it's possible both are true in different areas.

Forget about comparing countries. Look at what should have happened here and did not. Boris is a coward who will not take any tough decisions. He should have been leading, he does not.
Even the basics of sourcing PPE did not happen here when the government knew what was coming.

Boris has blood on his hands. That is what his cowardice has led to.

alloutoffucks Believe me I'm the last person to defend our government. Either how they've handled this or generally. But there have been a few posts from people in other countries around the world about how their media has heavily criticised the UK response particularly and i wondered how come they don't seem to be interested in Sweden who are still not in lockdown. Probably Random has given the reason above.

Fair enough but then why the embarrassment mentioned in the op. Almost every other nation is having the exact same issues, it's not like everyone else worked it out and is now shaking their heads at the UK.

I have friends abroad who are shaking their heads at the UK. They are amazed that we can't get tested here if we have symptoms. They have seen the viral video of the nurse crying outside the supermarket and dont understand why we have no food - I do explain we do have but not sure they all believe me.
Most people have no knowledge of details of how another country is handling corona. They may know a few things, but there are lots they won't know. But they all seem to have seen the video of the nurse crying. And most know that we had many more deaths until lock down in the UK, than other countries.

So I have friends in Thailand, Germany and Iceland who all had mild symptoms, and all had a test. They are shocked when I say you can only get a test here if you have been hospitalised.

@alloutoffucks I completely agree with you that our government dropped the ball on this. They knew a pandemic was the biggest threat this county faced. There were pandemic plans they ignored. They did not stockpile the ventilators as advised. They turned down offers for ventilators from UK makers early on so they were sold abroad. Same happened with tests. They didn’t stockpile enough ppe and those they did stockpile weren’t rotated so they were out of date. Staff have received these and can’t use them. The nhs will not get the ventilators and ppe they need in time even though we had a two months warning about this

We’re still not in proper lock down. Millions are having to work in call centres offices and warehouses etc. People treat it like a holiday and mingle.

The numbers are accelerating fast. I fear we’ll fare worse than Italy and Spain with good reason because the exponential data is clear.

And as for not knowing anyone with it... a family member is very ill with it and an acquaintance has died. A neighbour has it bad but not fighting deaths door. We’ll all know someone affected by this soon enough.

I agree with you. They messed this up

Ps my friends abroad are shocked by our response too