There must be a public inquiry

[Haplap]

And criminal charges. This government will have been responsible for so many avoidable deaths:

UK is projected to have over 3 times as many deaths as Italy by August (66 000 V 20 000):

covid19.healthdata.org/united-kingdom

They took all the wrong decisions despite the scientific advice:

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-path-speci-idUSKBN21P1VF

Stop clapping, start scrutinising!

With full spacesuit type PPE which has been shown to fully protect healthcare workers in Italy nearly all healthcare worker deaths could be avoided. Everyone who dies is a direct result of the lack of equipment for a problem that was fully known at the end of January. Johnson and his government have blood on their hands whilst they basked in the post-election and Brexit nonsense. There will be a great reckoning when the storm has passed. But not now there is work to be done.

Now is definitely not the time to start calling for an enquiry. We need the government to be focussed on the job in hand, not dealing with such nonsense. After this has all calmed down lessons definitely need to be learned. In fact Chris Whitty has already stated they are trying to learn from the German approach.

There will be a proportion of people baying for blood & then lining up lawyers to seek compensation from a government & country that will be on its knees after all this.

and thats the culture we live in.!

What, where employers are liable for employee deaths that could have been avoided with appropriate protection? I'm bloody glad that's the culture we live in! Yes, pandemic planning should be part of the scenery, so no excuse for having such woefully inadequate PPE.

I agree that now isn't the time for bringing such claims, but they absolutely should not be let off the hook for this.

I’m sure in the fullness of time everything is going to be minutely analysed and hopefully lessons will be learned. It’s going to be a long while though before we know who took the right approach, maybe never as countries are so different and what worked in one may not have worked in another.

At the moment I’m just concentrating on getting through the present situation as best I can and find calls for what should happen in two (or thereabouts) years’ time a bit irritating, to be honest.

@NoMorePoliticsPlease

It's pretty easy to compare the infection rates and death rates between countries as that information is freely available. The UK currently has around 55,000 cases and over 6,000 deaths. The UK was not one the the earliest countries to be affected by COVID-19, yet it has one of the highest infection rates. Pick almost any other country and you can see how bad things are. New Zealand, for example, currently has around 1,200 cases and 1 death. Sure there are social factors and just bad luck, but it's well known that countries like the UK and the US were slow to take action and that has cost both countries dearly.

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

OP that projection you quoted has already been discredited, making the rest of your post somewhat invalid.

Agree this country messed this up completely. We saw it coming and still went with the herd immunity bollocks. Thousands have died and they still have no exit strategy for lockdown. Incompetent beyond belief

Also, I do think that while there isn't an obvious path to take. It was pretty obvious that the government needed to close schools and start encouraging people to socially distance themselves way before they took action. They should have closed school weeks before they did.

Now is not the time for one, but really do think there needs to be a public enquiry. It was clear what needed to be done and government took far too long to take action. Even now the lack of PPE gear for NHS staff is shocking.

@rosiethehen

"This country is a pathetic shambles as per usual"

why do you live here then?

@davincitoad
Could you do it better?
Let’s hope those are nonsense figures that study came up with. But that question is one of the silliest “excuses” I have ever seen. These people put themselves forward as candidates to manage a country of 65 million through thick and thin. If they are not up to the job they should step down.

@inlawsimnotsure
Im gonna take a wild stab at this but maybe it is her home?

@Cam77 The Tory thought police will be along soon - clapping away for something rather than taking responsibility for the actions of their government.

@MrsFezziwig so why come on a thread about this and annoy yourself?

It does seem odd when you think of the early press conferences and now Boris has it, Hancock had it, Whitty had it, Gove is isolating. How did they get it so wrong, we know Boris exposed himself by handshaking in a hospital so what happened to the others? Remember these were the people telling us how to avoid it. Was it as simple as Boris passing it to all the others?

Of course others connected to him have also had it, Cummings and other staff at 10 Downing St and his pregnant girlfriend.

New Zealand, for example, currently has around 1,200 cases and 1 death.
It also has a population density of 47 people per mi 2 compared to 727 people per mi 2 - not particularly comparable

What a load of bollocks OP - the only government which needs being to account is the Chinese one

It is likely if there is a major public inquiry the first recommendation would be privatisation of the health service. We keep seeing how Germany is getting it right, maybe we need to model our health service on theirs.( It is actually very good by the way)

Entirely agree - everyone jumping up and down and pointing out how Germany has done a great job. It's a privately provided contracted out health service, with localised control. Almost the exact opposite of our "beloved" system.

Oh, and by the way, that study is based on complete bollocks. Just saying.

Everyone is focusing on lockdown actions but IMO the real place to be looking at is the Governments rejection of cooperation with EU for PPE and ventilators. I've seen no reasonable explanation for it.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted
The vast majority of Chinese people are very satisfied overall with how their government handled it after a tough first couple of weeks. Appearance is important, and their President wasn’t boasting of running around hospitals shaking hands two months into a pandemic.

@BentBastard
Brexit. They are so obsessed with it everything has to be seen and managed through those terms.

Different countries will have different infection rates and death rates because of so many different factors - demographics, population density, healthcare provision. It will be years down the line before we can even vaguely assess how we did taking into account all these factors. As PP said, that study is based on incorrect information on the numbers of ICU beds so it fundamentally flawed.

@Cam77 but you can leave? My family are ex pats overseas as they much prefer it there, the UK was their home at one point too.

If you think the country is a pathetic shambles 'as per usual' - either do something to try and change that / make a difference or live somewhere else that makes you happier.

Of course, might be easier to just be negative and complain your whole life

@cam77 obviously Brexit, my point was no "reasonable" explanation. Brexit is not a reasonable explanation. They invited us despite Brexit. Fucking dreadful decision to refuse and then bloody make up the worst dog at my homework lie about it.