If you were the Government, what would you do .....

[MagicSummer]

To bring the virus under control and ultimately give us back our 'old' life as far as possible?

Doesnt really matter what is put in place if the population dont follow the legislation
The government do not spread the virus we all do
Track and trace may work better if everybody gave their correct contact details with heavy fines for failing to do so

@rosie1959

Doesnt really matter what is put in place if the population dont follow the legislation The government do not spread the virus we all do Track and trace may work better if everybody gave their correct contact details with heavy fines for failing to do so

Well said.

I would do the following:

No admission to hospital for anyone in an old age care or nursing home and palliative care only if they are seriously ill. My mother is in a dementia care home. If she knew what her life was like now she'd have jumped off a cliff years ago. People in care homes aren't there for fun and I don't understand why we are crippling the country to keep the very elderly, frail and those with dementia alive at all costs. (In any event, my 81 year old mother with dementia had Covid and sailed through it. As did many other residents.) Not that I'm allowed to see her of course - I've seen her twice in ten months. Meanwhile the residents have been forcibly locked in their rooms to prevent the spread of Covid. If that isn't barbaric then I don't know what is.

If that fails to stem the tide of rising admissions then start with individuals aged over 85 and again, palliative care at home if they are seriously ill.

Then drop the age limit to 80. Then 75.

I'm pretty sure that would solve the issue of the NHS being overwhelmed and would allow normal life to resume. Yes, there's a risk to younger people but that risk doesn't mean we cripple the economy and ruin the lives of the younger generation. We need to be pragmatic. Just wish someone in the government would have the balls to do this.

I'd be honest. I'd tell everyone we're prioritising in this order

Nhs
Electric, gas, water, housing
Food
The internet
National security
Schools
The elderly
The lonely

I'd have much much clearer messaging. More like a risk bank.

I'd have years 8,9 on week in week out. I'd change the school year to 47 weeks and have 5 weeks hols in Dec/jan and work through the summer.

I'd have a team full of scientists, economists, and entrepreneurs to follow the science and give ideas.

The id have a team of entrepreneurs, business owners and military tasked to make the above happen by any means possible.

I'd encourage personal responsibility. We have far too many people expecting the government to solve this. They can't, we all have to do our bit.

On that note I'd retrospectively fire Dom Cummings and that horrendous Scottish mp with no morals who didn't resign.

I'd give David Cameron and tony Blair a pasting does not wearing a mask. I'd ask the queen to wear one.

@DappledOliveGroves completely agree. I wouldn't let my animals get in the state we sometimes allow our elderly too.

But where do you bring in the cut off to the 'elderly' .. my mother is in hospital with Covid... she is in her 70s until two weeks ago still cycling to the shops, went caravanning with my step dad.. Her mum lived to 97 my Dad similar .. died of heart failure in late 90s .. she has 'good' genes and a lot of life to live . Probably another 20 years without Covid... is her life so much less ?

Shut international borders except for goods - but work towards handover points near channel/ports.

Roadblock low infection areas and require 14 day quarantine to enter. Furlough for those who work cross border - Help with job-seeking. These places can have a functioning local economy while other parts of the country have stricter local measures.

Enforce heavy fines for breaking existing regulations. Build up govt testing capacity instead of relying on private.

Nationalise curriculum. Bbc to produce video lessons. Make online exercises with forums for discussion. These would be OPTIONAL and could be used by schools to cope if years/schools have to close. Allow vulnerable teachers the option of working on the online platform - moderating/answering questions.

Stop handing out vast contracts to my mates for a start.

Stop promising stuff I have no intention of delivering? When did Johnson first say we could have those "pregnancy style" tests?

Make sure vaccines are available for everyone in population; not just 30 million.

Take Marcus Rashford latest campaign.

Stop blaming everyone else for my cock ups.

Stop lying.

Oh yeah sack Cummings obvs.

@Bailey0703 I hope your Mum recovers swiftly and fully.

Bobby Ball has died, I don't know if it was of Coronavirus, but certainly with it at the age of 76. He was still acting & living a full life.

What about Mally, a London bus driver, who died aged 67 (one of 23 bus drivers who died due to Covid19)?

@DappledOliveGroves you say we We need to be pragmatic. Would you tell people that their family members are over your age limit and therefore expendable?

However, if I was in the Government I would also establish a system to allow family members to test, isolate and then visit their family members in care homes on a weekly basis using PPE, it must be awful for families to be kept apart. Of course we want to protect people in care homes but we do not want their last months or years to be in total isolation from their families.

It's not about being expendable. It's about realising that not so many years ago, people were happy if they lived to three score and ten. People aren't in care and nursing homes for a fun change of scene. By the time you get to that stage, your life pretty much sucks. I've seen it with my grandmother, my mother. It's why I pray they bring in euthanasia as a choice if I ever get to that stage. We are keeping the very elderly and frail alive, taking up beds in the NHS and why? If they're healthy enough then they'll survive Covid, flu and all the other ailments that usually trigger the end of someone's life. If they're so weak and ill, then let's give them morphine and keep them comfortable and not expect immortality.

Stop all the foreign holidays:
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8894415/Is-mutated-strain-Covid-19-blame-Europes-second-wave-Study.html
All the non-essential travel is bringing a constant supply of new variants of the virus into the country.
This article linked to above confirms that the travel over the summer has led to the current outbreak.

And fully open the Nightingale hospitals in affected areas (I know there are no staff - the plan is to put local staff on rotation as part of their normal shift patterns).

Instead, the current plan is to move any ICU patients who don't have a bed in affected areas to hospitals in less affected areas that do have beds. So your critically ill relative could end up hundreds of miles away. And the virus gets a fast track around the country.

It is a very fast and reliable method for ensuring that those areas in Tier 1 end up in Tier 3 by importing patients with the highest viral load into general ICUs with wholly inadequate PPE.
Then the whole country will need locking down again sooner than otherwise.

For everyone suggesting blended learning/staggering days in school etc what do you propose for the children of teachers? Both myself and dh are teachers (dh primary deputy head, me secondary head of department) and we have 2 dc age 5 and 8. We both worked throughout lockdown and we’re both fine working now, but our children need to be able to go to school to enable us to teach others. Would you let them go full time as we’re both ‘essential workers’? If they aren’t in school it means one of us isn’t in school either. There are thousands of teachers with young children who will be in the same position us.

I would:-

Have absolute clarity about numbers, what we know, what we don’t know and why certain guidelines are in place.

Look to Taiwan and implement a track, trace and isolate protocol that has a chance of working.

Live stream lessons from schools (was quickly implemented in private schools, so it must be possible), allow flexibility with attendance, particularly for those who are vulnerable.

One of the things I find confusing is the difficulty getting any information without it being used in political playground crap. Too much misinformation leaves us in the current situation where plenty still think it’s just flu, that masks are a deliberate plot on our freedom, that we should just let it happen.

@DappledOliveGroves

It's not about being expendable. It's about realising that not so many years ago, people were happy if they lived to three score and ten. People aren't in care and nursing homes for a fun change of scene. By the time you get to that stage, your life pretty much sucks. I've seen it with my grandmother, my mother. It's why I pray they bring in euthanasia as a choice if I ever get to that stage. We are keeping the very elderly and frail alive, taking up beds in the NHS and why? If they're healthy enough then they'll survive Covid, flu and all the other ailments that usually trigger the end of someone's life. If they're so weak and ill, then let's give them morphine and keep them comfortable and not expect immortality.

@DappledOliveGroves So are you advocating survival of the fittest and business as usual for the rest of society? What about the younger people who are dying? A dad of one of my DC's friends died of Covid in April leaving an 8 year old fatherless - he wasn't in rude health but without Covid he would very very likely still be alive. What about people like @Bailey0703's mum? People are inevitably going to die of Covid as it is a new disease but shouldn't we act to try and limit unnecessary deaths?

No admission to hospital for anyone in an old age care or nursing home and palliative care only if they are seriously ill.

I think elderly people (and some of their families)would be even less inclined to go into a care home than they are now if they know they wouldn't be allowed hospital treatment once they were in there!

@Mumtumwobble

For everyone suggesting blended learning/staggering days in school etc what do you propose for the children of teachers? Both myself and dh are teachers (dh primary deputy head, me secondary head of department) and we have 2 dc age 5 and 8. We both worked throughout lockdown and we’re both fine working now, but our children need to be able to go to school to enable us to teach others. Would you let them go full time as we’re both ‘essential workers’? If they aren’t in school it means one of us isn’t in school either. There are thousands of teachers with young children who will be in the same position us.

I can only see one comment about primary schools being blended / staggered. All the rest of the comments about moving to blended / or rota based learning relate to secondary / colleges / Universities. This also fits with the PHE data which suggests the cases are higher in the older age groups at secondary than at primary www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4058078-Now-we-know-why-the-govt-were-suppressing-the-schools-infection-data

Secondary age children or college students should be able to work independently as long as they have access to technology & ideally still with some face to face teaching timetabled to keep engaged. This is not as disruptive for working parents (either outside the house or at home) as having primary school children off as you rightly say that would mean a parent would have to be at home.

I appreciate not all secondary school pupils would / could / should work at home so there would need to be some provision for some pupils to attend throughout.

I completely disagree with blended learning. Teenagers need to be in school and feed off each other and learn from each other, anything else is just cruel. Stop trying to kill the spirit of Generation Z - they have paid a high enough price already. These really are critical years in the life of a young teen/young adult. I don’t think they will forgive us later on. Note my own kids are younger than this, it just my own personal observation. If you must and certain teachers are vulnerable life stream their lesson from another room and get students/young people in to supervise but don’t keep the young at home.

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly but people of all ages die. Young, old. Covid kills very few young people. But they can and do still die of other things. Adults die of flu, chickenpox, heart attacks, cancer, car accidents. We cannot go through life, as a society, insisting that no-one ever dies or takes a risk in case they die. If people are terrified of catching Covid (for whatever reason) then let them stay home or take precautions if they wish. My relatives in their late 70s are very much of the view that they'd rather crack on with life and enjoy it while they can.

Also, in terms of care homes, many, many residents are already subject to DNRs. We agreed one when my mother went into her care home. There would be absolutely no point resuscitating her if she had a heart attack - her quality of life is shocking. She's stuck in a dementia home, surrounded by demented people, not able to do much at all for herself and unrecognisable as the mother who raised me. Why do we want to keep people like my mother alive at all costs? Why do we admit these people to hospital if they could have end of life care at the care home?

I would have stopped all travel months ago. People to stay in their home town, no overnight stays.

I haven’t rtft yet but I listened to a discussion similar to this on the radio yesterday.
An epidemiologist suggested something so simple yet so effective:
Lock everyone down for 2 weeks.
During this time test everyone.
Keep those with a positive test isolates for another 3 weeks.
The key is apparently testing everyone at the same time. Expensive and logistically difficult (and with the UK’s level of organization probably impossible) but key to stopping transmission.
This is what I would do.

@DappledOliveGroves respectfully I don't want to keep your mother alive at all costs. But I would rather than when she dies you would not be prevented from seeing her if you chose to because she had Covid. Dying alone is probably not what most of us would choose for our loved ones.

I do think we need to act on preventable Covid deaths though (and thankfully treatment and recovery has very rapidly improved). People do die of all sorts but health and social care professionals don't normally face the jeopardy of getting seriously ill themselves when treating patients (hopefully in the second wave there will be fewer fatalities of professionals in the line of duty).

It wasn't just the NHS facing being overwhelmed in spring, crematoriums were struggling to keep up with demand. Covid19 fatalities are inevitable but our societies actions will determine whether it will be a flood or a trickle this winter.

@FarquarKumquatsmama That would mean 68 million tests and given the way testing nearly collapsed in September I don't think our system would be quite up to that! Not everyone would be compliant (for lots of reasons) so I'm afraid its an unworkable solution. It would provide a good stop gap and certainly bring down transmission but then what would you do about international travel? You'd have to close the borders indefinitely or have immediate and proper quarantine?

I’d get a proper leader for a start.

Where has Boris been this week? Anyone seen him?

I'd acknowledge errors
Apologise for the shitshow to date
Beg the public for compliance to a strict lockdown on the strict promise to properly sort out track n trace -for a month nationally
Assure financial support for those who need it
Sack Dominic and Dido and Priti
Get rid of Sadiq from office, take temporary charge and remove all the nonsense changes to traffic in London in the name of "saving" TFL
and also LTNs introduced recently in the rest of the UK
Put a hold on Brexit until pandemic is under better control
Defer exams and bring uni students home