So we are predicted to have the highest death toll in Europe, due to systemic errors made by this government. Do you trust the government to get us out of lock down safely?

[ssd]

I don't. They've f**d up too much. NHS managers are begging for PPE, NHS workers are dying.

This government have really really let us down.

We are predicted to have 40,000 deaths by the end of this.

The only silver lining is is that Labour might get its act together now Keir Starmer is in charge. Things can't get any worse.

And if any tory bots start saying 'at least it's not Corbyn'.. Well save your breath. No one could have made a bigger mess than Boris and Co.

That was test kits

"We are going to look untouched once this shitshow makes its way through developing countries"

I expect a little more from the UK than "not as bad as developing countries".

I wouldn't trust this government to look after my dog let alone a global pandemic.

Look at Taiwan and Korea. It is not inevitable for this to kill thousands of people. It is manageable but it needs to be managed.

Two deaths in the entire of Seoul, which has a population of 10 million. Because the government managed things properly.

@Oliversmumsarmy That was remarkable foresight since the WHO tweeted there was no evidence of human to human transmission on 14/01.

They are all over-promoted and way, way out of their depth. It's appalling that at this point in our history this is the government we have. But it's what we voted for.

The press conferences are a shit-show. They just repeat the same tired old messages and then people pile onto AIBU to say they shouldn't be questioned anyway. They're just propaganda and people seem to be lapping it up and turning on each other rather than questioning our 'leaders'.

Along with everything else, the insistence on pushing brexit through at a time of unprecedented economic hardship beggars belief. It's a truly terrifying time to be British.

No, I don’t.
I would love to trust them but I can’t, it’s impossible. The situation with PPE, testing, care homes is absolutely appalling. They did nothing to prepare the country since the very first case. They lied or at best they were hiding the truth.
And yes, we can’t compare ourselves to Germany but not for the reasons some people mentioned. Germany has got better health care system, better manufacturing and introduced strict measures at a much earlier stage. But we could have had all these too.

I can't believe the suggestion that our government has properly managed this because we will do better than incredibly poor and disadvantaged countries. We are the 6th richest country in the world. Not a very poor country that struggles to provide the basics to our population.

When I think about what went on in Italy, I’m grateful.
Erm you do realise that we have the same amount of deaths, if not more than Italy did at our stage?When Italy had our number of deaths the media was like 'oh gosh, look at Italy', but they don't seem to have acknowledged that our trajectory is the same.

I am pretty sure there is still a press gagging order in place that limits what the press can say.

The media are acting like we’re at war and their job is state propaganda. They seem to be acting like their job is solely to pass on to us, the sheeple, whatever the government tells them to.

We are looking like our deaths will be the same as Italy or larger. Only 2 weeks ago the press/people on the UK were thinking that Italy must have a terrible more deathly strain of the virus because of the horrific amount of deaths. Now the same amount is happening in the UK the media are strangely silent.
I wonder how many of people on this thread that still support the gov will in a few more weeks of the horrific amount of deaths in the UK, especially if/when it's one of their loved ones.
RIP all the wonderful Medics who have sacrificed their lives to help us, and the elderly who have died alone in care house surrounded by dead bodies in the UK especially.

OP, I agree with you

Do I trust the government? No, but that's just not this government, I just don't trust politicians in general. Our current MP is a waste of space.

The lockdown isn't for your safety OP, it's to stop the NHS being overwhelmed and nothing more. If they could have coped, we wouldn't be in the lockdown (no chance).

I'm under no illusion the government gives a shiny shit about you, me or anyone else.

I agree with most of what you've said OP, minus the Corbyn bits.

And here's why:

bylinetimes.com/2020/04/11/a-national-scandal-a-timeline-of-the-uk-governments-woeful-response-to-the-coronavirus-crisis/

Can't understand why so many are saying that Italy and Spain have fared no better/worse

A) They are ahead of us time wise so figures are currently higher
B) They had no window, no time to act. We had the gift of time, letters from experts in Italy begging us not to make their mistakes. We squandered that.My friend in Spain was horrified by our joke response and inaction.

I think those of us who were on here in January, just ordinary people with no advisers, could see the train crash coming. We were shouting for action. So if we could see this why couldn't our Govt and advisers.

"Take it on the chin", shake hands, herd immunity, outdoor events are safe, you don't need face masks, we have PPE, we will ramp up testing, children are safe, can anybody build us several thousand ventilators out of sticky back plastic please?

Woeful. My children used as collatoral damage in schools.

80 per cent of children in New York may have been infected, I believe.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30727-3/fulltext

'They had a duty to immediately put the NHS and British public on high alert. February should have been used to expand coronavirus testing capacity, ensure the distribution of WHO-approved PPE, and establish training programmes and guidelines to protect NHS staff. They didn't take any of those actions. The result has been chaos and panic across the NHS. Patients will die unnecessarily. NHS staff will die unnecessarily. It is, indeed, as one health worker wrote last week, “a national scandal”. The gravity of that scandal has yet to be understood.'

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-new-york-city-children-infected-how-many-covid-19-cases-a9467141.html

tontie

WHO were saying the same thing on 23rd January

Unless those kits were ordered right at the end of January I wonder what Germany knew that the rest of the world didn’t

That was remarkable foresight since the WHO tweeted there was no evidence of human to human transmission on 14/01

German virologists – working with the country’s public and private sectors – responded particularly quickly to develop a diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2
Already, on 16 January, before the World Health Organisation had concluded that the novel coronavirus could be transmitted from one human being to another, German scientists had produced a diagnostics test

Read and weep.....

reaction.life/why-is-germany-able-to-test-for-coronavirus-so-much-more-than-the-uk/

Thanks for the link, jasjas. Another interesting part of this article:

It was a biotech entrepreneur, Olfert Landt, who spearheaded the efforts to get a diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 off the ground. As soon as he heard about the novel coronavirus, he mobilised the resources of TIB Molbiol, his Berlin-based biotech company, to collaborate with virologist in Berlin’s Charité university hospital.

The result is that the diagnostic developed by TIB and Berlin’s Charité – the latter of which is also an integral member of the RKI network – had produced a viable test by 16 January. Then, by mid-March, they had created as many as 4 million test kits, which were then used in Germany and around the world by the WHO.

Merkel is a scientist Leo Varadker is a doctor. I think these facts are really important. They understood the exponentiality of the virus. Johnson with his classics degree just didn't get it, and following his landslide he surrounded himself with yes men. The only voice of reason and I never thought I'd say this is Jeremy Hunt.

SonEtLumiere

I don’t know about the numbers but I do think that there are many more people who have had this virus

I think there was a spike in the death rate from the normal January numbers.

I know of an nhs dr who found hazmat suits online for less than a tenner . He was going to buy 100. Why on earth should this not already be provided?

I think those of us who were on here in January, just ordinary people with no advisers, could see the train crash coming. We were shouting for action.

What action were you shouting for? And this was all before any European deaths & the public have had scares before eg swine flu.

I think it's naive to think the public would be that concerned & cooperate with preventative measures until they saw what was happening in Italy, it's human nature.

*What action were you shouting for? And this was all before any European deaths & the public have had scares before eg swine flu"

Don't know about January but in Feb i wrote to our HR dept asking for extra PPE esp sanitiser for our front line technicians and got no replay, so i ordered bulk hand gel... sold out and could only get 5l from a wholesaler, such was the demand, this was around 5 or 6th Feb.

Had Johnson ordered a lock down in early March, people would have compiled, he just needed to lead but as someone said about him "He waits until he sees the public mood, then jumps out in front shouting Follow ME!"

@jasjas1974 Why would I read the article & weep?

Yes Germany have been far better at testing then us, I've never denied it. They decided to find out themselves regarding human to human transmission as opposed to waiting for the WHO to confirm.

Two huge differences are outlined in the article. Firstly the way the Germany economy is set up, I would love for manufacturing to return more to the UK but then us consumers will need to get used to paying more. Secondly the massive difference in how they organise their health service.

Do people think it was possible to change these things in the UK in weeks?

The article also says the below, so there is some effort.

The UK has conducted fewer tests per million people of its population than the US and Germany. But it remained slightly ahead of other European countries, such as France and the Netherlands, on this front quite recently (20 March).