Our government have messed up. What would you have done?

[Concerned7777]

So many posts about how the government have messed up, not handled things well, they're a shambles etc
I'm interested to know what people would have done in they was the PM or what they would do now/next ?
What has been done wrong and what has been right?
disclaimer I'm not suggesting the Gov are right or wrong just after peoples thoughts

There is more common sense on here in a couple of hours than the Government has collectively shown over 3 months!!!

Yay, go mumsnet !

I read in newspapers that the Gov/NHS was prepared for a flu style pandemic, not this sort of pandemic, which is interesting, as I would like to know what the difference is. I understand it is more contagious than flu, but less dangerous? So what difference would that make?
Reports state that the acquisition of PPE did not feature in the Cygnus report (ie the pandemic simulation of 2016). So I think the lack of PPE would have happened whichever Gov were in power.
That said, the real problem was the lack of testing capacity, and the failure of PHE?, NHS? to utilise private testing centres right at the beginning. I think Matt Hancock floundered there, and was not capable of forcing this through. (especially why Boris Johnson was incapacitated in hospital).
I am generally against this sort of Lockdown, as it is so damaging to the economy, but I can see the Gov had no choice due to Media pressure.
I think I would have restricted inward flights, especially from the various hotspots (China, and then Italy), although current reports state the virus came to this country from France and Spain, so would have not made much difference. Although when President Trump did so, he was criticised by the WHO, so this may have come under pressure.

oh, and the covid-hotel think they did throughout Asia for any +, with medics there, rather than the english "stay at home with paracetamol" - with all your family around you - recipe for disaster

I'd like to say close borders from mid Feburary, but I can imagine the outrage if that had happened. Not least on here.
I think the main thing would have been to be more closely monitor people at home in the early stages of the illness as they did in Germany. Keeping people out of hospital as much as possible is a good strategy, but they needed more care and supervision.
Also earlier medical intervention seems to be working well in India in reducing fatalities. I think that's the way to go.
I think gradually introducing social distancing into lockdown was handled well bcause people were well motivated and compliant for the first few weeks, but it should have happened at least a week sooner.
Not sure how to handle the care home sector, it's not just the UK who have failed here. I think this is the most difficult part of the picture.

What @blackpeonies said.

I would have locked the country down at least a week earlier when it became pretty evident what was happening, in fact I took my kids out of school and locked our family down at least a week before it was official as I could see what was happening as I'm sure many others could. Allowing people to keep coming into the country unchecked and mass events to go ahead was just stupidity. The Nightingale hospitals should have been more widely used to care for palliative patients and those recovering rather than just sending them back to Nursing homes to infect others, it's just basic infection control and makes me furious that the most vulnerable were put at risk.

@milveycrohn

That's an interesting comparison. I think flu doesn't spread so quickly because people do have to go to bed for the first few days. You don't get mild cases of flu like you do with COVID-19. It sounds as if it spreads like colds do, because, without rules on self-isolation, people with mild cases keep on as normal spreading the virus wherever they go.

I don't think flu is necessarily less serious. It's impossible to say because there's a flu jab, so vulnerable people are protected if they have the vaccination (though I know it's not foolproof). I've had a bad time with COVID-19 symptoms, but my problems started with a bad bout of flu last year, which turned into pneumonia, which nearly led to me being hospitalised. It left me with CFS and therefore vulnerable.

Either way, the government should have been more prepared, especially after seeing what happened in Italy.

It’s tricky because at the point a stricter lockdown would have been more effective the public attitude wasn’t ready for it.

When idiots continued to go to Cheltenham and Anfield when they should have been self isolating due to symptoms, this is very true. Far too many people simply didn't understand the seriousness (or didn't care). Same with people who were actually flying abroad for holidays on the Sunday (the day before lockdown) - what were they thinking - most of Europe was closing down and they thought it was ok to go on holiday??

Ultimately what they did wrong was listen to their experts, this meant they waited too long for lockdown. Different experts would have given advice, which in this case probably would have turned out to be right.

They also allowed PHE too much control in the early days, especially over testing.

Yes re Covid hotels!

They've had schools shut. So lots of nursery staff and TAs who have worked on a rota.

You could have hotels run and then for families with no childcare children could have been cared for within a separate wing. Proper infection control etc.

Obviously not that simple but would certainly be something that could improve situations.

I think they were too slow to acknowledge that people were catching it in Europe. We were all talking about the cases in a Italy but still in the U.K. you could only get tested or had to self isolate if you’d been to Wuhan. Ridiculous.

*Close international borders, or at least quarantine properly international arrivals.
*Shield over 70s and vulnerable people properly, with access to safe accomodation, food deliveries etc.
*Ramp up NHS capacity
*Stop large indoor gatherings
*Set up a proper test, track and trace
*Do NOT close schools, shops, businesses, and crash the economy. There's no need, the people who are at risk are shielded.
*Do all this at the beginning of March.

I agree about people not understanding seriousness. I said so above. And I think the biggest government failing was lack of public information about reality.

Not enough just to say some loved ones will die prematurely.

Can I just randomly add old Matty H is annoying tonight.
I've always found him able to sound the most sincere.
But this evening he actually sounds very knowledgable, I'm believing 90% of what he's saying, he's using less propaganda language and much more realism.

And I want to be annoyed at them.

Although he's just mentioned Cruella De Braverman so that's let him down big time. She's a fucking crap MP who literally only gives a shit about her MC constitutents and never replies to those she doesn't deem worthy.

Used lockdown to make a plan for coming out of lockdown, based on logic and enablers
I think logic would show that opening schools/childcare should come before shops/pubs so that workers are available to work.
I also think meeting a limited number of family/friends should have been a first step because I think a lot of people felt if they had to go mix with colleagues, they also should be able to see family and have made their own rules.

@Kazzyhoward I agree, although they were being told at the time by the government that large gatherings were perfectly safe and our PM was on TV making light of it all so I guess they took their lead from this.

I also recall many threads on MN in March where people were adamant that they would be going ahead with travel plans even right up to Easter during the peak and thought people were being hysterical for suggesting that they should not go. My concern is that if quarantine restrictions even for air bridges that airlines and travel agents will tempt people to travel in the next few months with low fares and it will all start all over again.

our govt started out with a bad hand, they didnt play it very well
or maybe they made the best possible purse from a sows ear?
it was never going to be a silk purse was it, not with dirty, sneezy, rowdy, porky, hypertensive, diabetic britain

I'd have quarantined all the shielders and elderly from the very start. Everyone else carry on as normal with some social distancing measures.

Locked down two weeks earlier
Shut borders in March
Kept doing contact tracing as they did do at the beginning.
Enforced fines for things like big gatherings, rather than ignoring them -like in my local area.

If we did the above, then we may have been back to some normality weeks ago.

I wonder if it's time to look at our police force system.

policing by consent is a good system but it doesn't work as a stand alone system for pandemics. Mind you neither does a complete set of guidelines and rules we are meant to understand but aren't clear make it easy for anyone to know what's they shouldn't do by law and what they should follow by consent as its guidance!

Reports state that the acquisition of PPE did not feature in the Cygnus report (ie the pandemic simulation of 2016). So I think the lack of PPE would have happened whichever Gov were in power.

The government haven't released the Cygnus report because it is "too sensitive" - ie it makes the government look bad for ignoring it's findings. However an investigation by The Telegraph found that lack of PPE was one of the issues highlighted by the report.

I'm no Boris fan by any stretch of the imagination but I dont think Corbyn and Abbott would have done any better either (and I'm a long time labour voter)
I wish borders had been closed earlier and I don't agree with schools being closed for so long without any expectation or plans to get back to normal. I feel schools resuming should of been a higher priority than non essential retail although I recognize the need to keep the economy going.

I wouldn't have done any better than the govt.

I didn't see it coming. I didn't think it was possible it could happen here (I thought 'we're British, bad things don't happen to us!') I thought it was 'just flu' and the panic was an over reaction.

I didnt want to lock down and I didnt want school to close.

I would have messed up royally.

*I'm interested to know what people would have done in they was the PM or what they would do now/nextc

Well, for starters I wouldn't have been treating it like a playground game.

I would have done things earlier or rather the things that didn't impact children, as much as they have.

They told people to work from home. Lots of employers ignored that. I could have worked from home, evidenced by the fact that i have done it from the day lockdown started.

I would have made that mandatory much earlier. Getting people off public transport, off the road, out of offices earlier.

We had a bug in late Feb that floored all my floor in the office. I susoect it was covid, given I havent had a sense of taste or smell since. It shows how quickly these things spread.

If it hadn't been for us knowing lockdown was coming, I woild have still been in the office.

Forced Cheltenham and the music concerts to cancel.

Basically everything we have, but earlier.