Matt Hancock is really struggling to get his words out today!

[Teddypops]

Gosh he is struggling. Forgot the name of one of the advisers.

He looked really drained by the end. First time I've really noticed a cabinet representative really look on the verge of a breakdown.

Where the fuck is Boris?

Who would mumsnetters like to take over? Would people trust Chris Witty or Jenny Harries be better as stand ins for now? Maybe they would be more informed. More reassuring?!
I think he could go with a lot more help.

80s - you mean take over the press conference? I’d be happy not to have one. They could put a daily statement, with graphs etc on the government website.

I’d like a national government. Cut out the politics and get the best brains from every party on it.

Where the fuck is Boris?

Recovering from critical illness. Which is obviously something that happens in a few days 🙄

Rishi is ex Goldman so will come across well. He knows his stuff.

If you mean take over from Johnson,I’d go for Sunak as well.

Me too. Sunak is entirely credible.

I meant take over Matt hancocks job ! Won't happen of course , but I do feel he could do with a rest from it !

Matt Hancock is like an annoying lower sixth former

If reports in the media are correct then Sunak is one of the key “hawks” pushing for us to come out of lockdown earlier than the scientific advisers think we should. No thanks.

Vallance, Whitty and Sunak or Raab would reassure me. I really felt for MH. He’s obviously not well or nearing some sort of meltdown.

But Sunak thinks the government should stop paying so much attention to Whitty and Vallance.

The Daily Mail had Michael Gove as a hawk!
It make me laugh : more like a rat!

*CendrillonSings and Hancock had it too but he is wheeled out every other day. Boris is walking his dog around Chequers.

Sunak thinks that because he’s Chancellor and has to balance the books. His brief would be totally different if he was Health Secretary.

Sabine that’s one reason I’m in favour, though I do think some of what the scientists say is getting lost because the media want more drama than scientists provide.

Jeremy Corbyn gets to effectively retire to his allotment. Who says the good guys don't win in the end.

Vallance said “ "It's worth remembering again ... They have COVID on their death certificate but it doesn't necessarily mean they have been infected because they haven't been tested?"

And then I think his next sentence was “it’s really important to understand the difference”. This is not something I’ve seen any follow up on, though there are people asking.

If it’s about symptoms, the presentation is or indeed will be pneumonia. Covid symptoms are a bit of a catch all at the moment.

As far as I am aware no other countries are getting daily briefings and the subsequent media grilling from their government. It must be a huge stress to carry

Trump does a 2 hour one everyday - well, it seems like that. His go on forever.

Chom it’s different for Trump

He enjoys standing up and having a waffle on for a while.

Trump has to do it because he wants to get elected. Johnson's majority means that he could effectively burn 50 quid notes on air and there's nothing we the British public could do about it.

Are you suggesting that Covid is causing fewer deaths than official figures suggest? That seems unlikely given that the ONS figures show that the number of excess deaths is actually more than the number of deaths attributed to Covid. I think we have to assume that at least a portion of the “official” figures are people who would have died anyway (lots of very ill, very elderly people) so why are there so many excess deaths? Lots of people have been confidently saying for weeks that they were waiting for excess death figures because they were confident that, actually, the overall death rate would be broadly the same, or possibly lower, than at the same time last year because so many of the victims were dying with Covid rather than of Covid. I must admit, even I though the excess deaths number would be lower than the official Covid numbers, partly because lockdown would reduce transmission of other diseases and because at least some of the “Covid” victims would have died anyway of other health problems. The figures show that we actually have more excess deaths than official Covid deaths,

The death figures we’re getting every day are only hospital deaths. They don’t include care homes.