Boris announcement- November. Does he know something?

[Yetiyoga]

Not sure if this has been suggested. We are supposed to find out next week about how successful the Oxford vaccine has gone aren't we? Do you think Boris Johnson knows the result and that is why he thinks we could be back to normal by November / Christmas? Or am I being naive/ too optimistic?
I just can't see 'normal' by Christmas as things are currently. And I'm fairly relaxed about it all.
I have a first niece / nephew due late October so it would mean the world to be able to meet them this year.

We'd been washing hands, not sharing pens etc for a while before that.

I thought the daily briefings were good, I was very impressed by Rishi Sunak...

Always knew you had a sense of humour, Daily briefings being the highlight of Bojo's pandemic handling!

Sunak is dishing out the money right now, lets see how popular he will be when all this needs to be paid for?

Seems unrealistic for such a densely populated country with high immigration, some of the busiest airports in the world

Agree, always imposible, esp given we didn't take any notice of Exercise Cygnus and Bojo went for a herd immunity strategy instead of getting testing sorted, remarkable as we were one of the first countries to develop an accurate CV test & then decided to scrap testing and not use the local PH labs.

My employer advised on 17th March that we were welcome to work from home with immediate effect. A week before official lockdown. Don't know what Johnson was thinking.

Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 16 March 2020 -

"now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel."

"We need people to start working from home where they possibly can. And you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues."

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-16-march-2020

Yes the public were ahead of Bojo on this, certainly in my social circle we were amazed no lockdown in early March, we all saw what was happening in Italy.

Silly me thinking that our incompetent government's response to the pandemic was world-beatingly awful.

I have now read Clavinova's posts and realise that the government locked down at exactly the right time, and that they have scrupulously followed scientific advice at all times! Thank goodness for that!

jasjas1973
esp given we didn't take any notice of Exercise Cygnus

I've skip read Exercise Cygnus [carried out in 2016] and think we did take quite a lot of notice (that's not to say the recommendations were all good) - which is why there wasn't much fuss when it was actually published/leaked. Have you read it yourself?

Like you, only the leaked version, redacted.

I seem to recall one of the 4 key recommendations was in social care, SC providers say they have never been involved in any changes.... perhaps evident given the number of deaths in care homes, didn't PHE say that the elderly shouldn't be released to the CH sector.

Dept Health said it was never published as the recommendations were being decided upon, Hancock says ALL its findings have been implemented.

Clavinova -Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus (COVID-19): 16 March 2020 - "now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel."

Which is why there are so many eyebrows raised that he would attend a mass gathering at the rugby at Twickenham on 7th March and then host a baby shower for his heavily pregnant girlfriend on 14th March, he'd had the briefings and inside insight into what was coming and presented such a cavalier attitude!

It was as late as 5th March that he said during his appearance on This Morning;
" Well it’s a very, very important question, and that’s where a lot of the debate has been and one of the theories is, that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures. I think we need to strike a balance, I think it is very important, we’ve got a fantastic NHS, we will give them all the support that they need, we will make sure that they have all preparations, all the kit that they need for us to get through it. But I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now to stop the peak of the disease being as difficult for the NHS as it might be, I think there are things that we may be able to do.

Let's hope they move faster on measures going forward.

Seems unrealistic for such a densely populated country with high immigration, some of the busiest airports in the world and a few sticking points on privacy and human rights.

Does it seem unrealistic - for an island? Saving 60 thousand odd lives and avoiding a recession and lockdown which have killed and will kill more would surely have been worth it don’t you think?

Track and trace can be done manually in any case, without an app. When done properly (not here even now), it works.

Hancock says ALL its findings have been implemented

I haven't seen that quoted myself, but you posted;
"we didn't take any notice of Exercise Cygnus" - we did!

didn't PHE say that the elderly shouldn't be released to the CH sector

I don't think so - the plan was 'reverse triage' and getting patients out of hospitals - the exercise assumed 200,000 - 400,000 deaths.

Like you, only the leaked version, redacted.

It wasn't redacted.

Abitannoying
Which country/countries do you have as an example?

So the dept of health say the findings weren't implemented, hence why report not published.... Hancock says they were..... mmmmmmmm who to believe???
The same hancock who lied about Apple blocking the UK getting an App and then having to apologise to them.

Given the lack of PPE and that the tories ran down the PPE stock Blair built up, it would appear Hancock is again lying, we all know Brexit froze govt decision making from 2016 and who gave us that?

Dept Health said it was never published as the recommendations were being decided upon

I thought it was decided that the public didn't need to read about 400,000 deaths and where to stack the bodies.

*Given the lack of PPE and that the tories ran down the PPE stock Blair built up, it would appear Hancock is again lying, we all know Brexit froze govt decision making from 2016 and who gave us that?

You obviously didn't read the report - PPE was barely mentioned - private providers to provide their own... If I remember correctly, the Guardian didn't mention PPE in their article either after they had actually read the report.

The same hancock who lied about Apple blocking the UK getting an App and then having to apologise to them.

Did he apologise?

Can't trust the French either;

"France says Apple's bluetooth policy is blocking coronavirus tracker."

www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/france-says-apples-bluetooth-policy-is-blocking-coronavirus-tracker

Which country/countries do you have as an example?

A quick google will give you the answer and in any case I am sure you already know.

What is the point of your posts Clavinova? Isn’t it by facing up to the truth that we change things? Admittedly this is not Johnson and Cummings’ modus operandi, rather they will say that something is green when it is in fact red in the hope that it sticks.

If this government had wanted to be at all credible they would have formed an all party group to work on strategy to manage everything to do with Covid, just like the war cabinet did in WW2. Instead they just did exactly what they wanted & we ended up with nearly 46k deaths as a minimum.

"In the digital fight against COVID-19, Big Tech squared off against governments—and won."

"As policymakers around Europe pushed to develop smartphone apps to track the spread of the coronavirus, Apple and Google flexed their muscles by laying out conditions for building the tools, which are now set to be rolled out across the bloc and beyond by early June."

"In conversations with more than 30 policymakers, data-protection experts, independent computer scientists and tech engineers from across the EU and United States, POLITICO pieced together how Google and Apple got their way, often playing hardball with politicians who have used their opposition to U.S. tech players to earn political capital with local voters.The companies also teamed up with longtime privacy campaigners—often those who have balked at Silicon Valley's collection of reams of people's personal data—to push back against concerns about potential government surveillance."

www.politico.eu/article/google-apple-coronavirus-app-privacy-uk-france-germany/

Abitannoying
A quick google will give you the answer and in any case I am sure you already know.

Let me guess - South Korea?

I didn't mention PPE in regard to the report, just the point on CH, it was the Observer, not Guardian.

As regard tech, Apple are famed for its security protocols, its why you can't buy any other make of phone with IOS, unlike Android.

This is common knowledge for any app developer and something the Govt should have checked with first, it isn't mitigated just because France screwed up too.

back to whether AlJohnson has special knowledge, no. He's an optimist, to be fair. The record shows that his crystal ball is pretty crappy at predicting dates of anything.

Hasn't Johnson said today that a vaccine (this year or next) is unlikely?

His belief/hope that we will be back to normal by November is horse shit.

This is common knowledge for any app developer and something the Govt should have checked with first, it isn't mitigated just because France screwed up too.

Obviously not common knowledge - there is a sub heading in my link;

"Germany switches sides" ...
"Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government intervened to ditch the initial German-led proposals in favour of those promoted by Google and Apple." ...

"With little, if any, communication with local experts and EU policymakers, Google and Apple announced on April 10" ...
"Both companies refused to open their technology to governments pushing for centralized data storage ..."

Apple/iPhone problems for Australia as well;
"6th May Australia is set to abandon its centralised coronavirus app – will the UK be next?"

tech.newstatesman.com/coronavirus/australia-centralised-app-will-uk-be-next

His belief/hope that we will be back to normal by November is horse shit.

"It is my strong and sincere hope that we will be able to review the outstanding restrictions and allow a more significant return to normality from November at the earliest - possibly in time for Christmas,"

"At a news conference at Downing Street, the prime minister said the plan "remains conditional" on continued progress in controlling the virus and preventing a second wave of infections that could overwhelm the NHS."

"Mr Johnson added he was "hoping for the best and planning for the worst".