If you were in charge what would you have done to manage the virus?

[Dickorydockwhatthe]

Everyone is saying what a shit job the government are doing which I sort of agree with but to be honest I wouldn't like to be making the decisions.

[OverTheRainbow88]

I thank God everyday that I am not I charge of covid and Brexit mess.

[Tier2Minus]

@StillSmallVoice

Ask Jacinda Arden.

Or South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Australia,..


https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2020-10-30/don-t-ignore-the-good-news-on-covid-19-from-asia?twitterr_impression=true

[StillSmallVoice]

Ask Jacinda Arden.

[Love51]

As soon as the virus was known about, I'd have shut the borders. I'd have given people 48 hours to pick if they wanted to stay abroad or come home and shut the airports. Obviously we have a land border with the EU we can't close. I might have said everyone stay in your nation. It seemed draconian at the time, but compared to lock down, saying you have to stay in your own nation is positively liberal.
I couldn't understand at the time why we didn't say "we are an island nation this needn't be a massive disaster for us".

[BenchHench]

And:

Extended half term to two weeks and then tacked on this lockdown on the end of that

[BenchHench]

Closed the borders
No international summer holidays
Stronger and stricter enforcement - including the military, knocking on doors etc.
Very high fines to deter non-compliance
Local trace and trace
Earlier lockdowns

[Helmetbymidnight]

What this Govt have done and failed to done is appalling and yet on FB all I can see is a load of people saying nothing is the Govt's fault.
It's bewildering. The failures are immense.

[BenchHench]

@grassisjeweled

Underlying all this though is a decade of underfunding the NHS.
^

This. And what a way to demonstrate such a broken system

It's not underfunded - it's mismanaged. If they sorted out the procurement debacles it would free up hundreds of millions.

[Krook]

Close the borders in February. I find it amazing that people were (are) allowed to fly about willy-nilly.

Stop faffing with masks, looking back now it seems incredible that they weren't compulsory in shops until July.

Invest more money in developing a quick and reliable test.

[cologne4711]

There was a thread like this before, it's easy to act with hindsight.

I probably wouldn't have done anything different with the first lockdown, although knowing that outside transmission is so low risk, would have probably allowed people to meet up for exercise outside earlier.

I would have rules about pavements and paths though - single file, keep left and unglue your hips and give space to people.

I would also insist that dogs are on short leads, as you can't social distance when you are trying to avoid dogs meandering all over the place.

I wouldn't have let pubs reopen except outdoors, and would have stuck to the rules the government originally proposed, like table service and no ordering at the bars. Too many pubs broke those rules.

I would have prioritised (and still would prioritise) quick testing for schools and I would have got Y10 and 12 back after May half term for face to face teaching.

And I would have sacked Cummings.

[GrapefruitsAreNotTheOnlyFruit]

Thanks for the thread because I think about it a lot.

• Testing, Track and trace run by properly resourced local authorities and GPs. No cash for Deloittes

• Moved out of the initial lockdown and finished furlough faster leaving more cash available for later.

• Not done eat out to help out

• Had a massive focus on increasing NHS bed capacity, training new health care assistants etc. Split care into covid and non covid.

• Paid everyone with a positive test and close contacts to stay at home for two weeks.

• Provided online school as an option (with school place retained) for students and families with serious health conditions

• Up to two named visitors for each care home resident with weekly testing

• Shielding scheme with pay for those with the most serious medical conditions

• British standard kitemark for most effective face coverings

[InOutandidontmind]

With hindsight, everything can become very easy! So i'll give Johnson the March delay.... how could he know?????

However the 5 week one from 23rd Sept to 5th November is crass stupidity or as i suspect, part of an overall Herd Immunity strategy and post CV allows the Govt to completely privatise the NHS to be an insurance based system on the USA model, with only AE available for free, as they will argue the NHS isn't fit for purpose and Tory voters will agree, by electing the Cons back in again in 2024.

[GintyMarlow2]

I would have taken advantage of the fact that we are an island, and given UK residents who were abroad two weeks to get home by organising flights.
Then locked the borders, with no ifs or buts. Then locked down, strictly, with exemptions for only essential workers. Whilst doing this, organise an effecient test, track and isolate programme, requisitioning hotels and keeping infectious people in a hotel room for 14 days. Paid for by the government, not the individual. Organised payment of full wages for all in lockdown, for a month.
The government can't expect people to isolate if they need to go to work to pay their bills, and even offering 80% isn't enough of an incentive to ensure compliance.
Continue with test, track and isolate until the number of infections was so low as not to be dangerous.
It would have taken a lot of organising, but would have been far more effective than the half hearted measures we have in place at the moment, with people still claiming to be confused, or thinking that their particular case enables them to ignore rules, and that their child's life will be ruined if they can't have their birthday party.

[buttonmoonb4tea]

Oh and I would NOT have adopted the herd immunity strategy that the government now likes to deny it ever used.

Gaslighting bastards.

[buttonmoonb4tea]

I would have closed the borders in February

Locked down 2 weeks earlier in March I was self isolating for those 2 weeks and could see the Tsunami approaching the government on the other hand were oblivious

Opened up the schools May/June if infection rates were low.

Put a Track and Trace system in place that actually worked through local public health authorities.

Funded the NHS properly for the last decade.

[Ozzie9523]

Closed borders right at the beginning, sacked Cummings, sorted out test and trace, pumped money into the NHS so they wouldn’t have to keep going on about ‘protecting the NHS’.

[KnightsofColumbusThatHurt]

Woah, some of you have given this an awful lot of thought 😂

[BefuddledPerson]

@pisspants

I would have locked down 2 weeks earlier than it happened.
I would have stopped flights from Wuhan, then from China more generally as the virus spread there.
When cases were low over the summer there was the definite opportunity to have created a proper and functioning test and trace system. I think this was their major blunder.
I would have also forced Cummings resignation as I think public trust in the government and following the rules was seriously compromised at that point.
I would have also gone with the 2 week circuit break over half term.
Underlying all this though is a decade of underfunding the NHS.

Agree with all of this.

I would also have paid people properly to isolate as rooms y people simply can't afford to miss work.

And no fines for parents who miss school so long as they check in with school.

[ImaginaryCat]

I would have attended every Cobra meeting from the middle of January, because that would have been my goddamn job. And then every decision I made after that, I would at least have been in possession of all the information.

[1stV45]

And "shielding the vulnerable" from March 23rd to August 1st didn't seem to stop people dying did it?

Well yes, actually. Deaths were vastly reduced compared to the "do nothing" predictions. Why do you think they weren't?

[Tier2Minus]

If you just let the virus spread you don't get to carry on as normal for long. It keeps building for quite a while, and once schools and hospitals collapse normal life grinds to a halt somewhat.

Hospitals and schools are expected to start to collapse first. (December and January respectively) Then everything else suffers from all the chaos of millions of people either being off sick or off work looking after kids off school, or ill parents or partners etc there's no room for in hospitals. People not going to work means vital stuff doesn't get done, and then you get power supply problems, food supply problems water supply problems...

And "shielding the vulnerable" from March 23rd to August 1st didn't seem to stop people dying did it?

[Funkypolar]

“...military banging on doors asking for ID.”

Thankfully Mumsnet isn’t in charge, we’d have martial law!

[1stV45]

I know it's not universally popular but I said early on, shield the most vulnerable so everyone else could carry on.

Really hard for those who need to shield but the alternative is really hard for everyone and by destroying the economy we run the risk of services that can't cope with the most vulnerable's needs.

However, as they did go down the lockdown route and are now doing it again, I think the absolute shambles that was the way the Cummings affair was handled has had a huge impact.

All they needed to do was get him to say 'I'm sorry, I made a poor decision" and it would have swiftly moved on. As it was, it was the turning point for having people comply, what ever restrictions they try to put in place now.

[Tier2Minus]

@Dragongirl10

God l wish Mumsnetters were in charge...

Some of them.

Not the "Let it rip and let vast numbers of our children's grandparents/bus drivers/ hospital porters/shop workers and bar staff get covid so I don't have to change anything in my life" types.

Or the "I demand my right to light up my house like a Christmas tree. Nobody dies of Luftwaffe. It's a scam to control you" sorts during the.Blitz.

Let's not put them in charge.

[Amrythings]

Locked down in tandem with Ireland (and firmly squashed the DUP yapping), closed borders, tested en masse and got a drive on for fabric masks among the public - maybe we didn't know if they help against Covid, but we did know they help for basically everything else and it would have normalised ahead of cold and flu season.

And before any of that, shut down the Six Nations, Cheltenham etc, quarantined anyone entering from Italy at half term (in airport hotels, none of this trusting to better natures) and we'd actually have been in a position comparable to NZ by now.