Can anyone see anything positive that covid has done in response to covid ?

[helpmehelpmetoday]

So much bashing of tories on here.. does anyone see anything good that Boris and the gov have done in their response to covid ?

Genuinely curious !

There are a lot of fervent Tory voters around where I am, and even they can't convince themselves that this government has managed covid well. I'm sure some people will be happy to vote them back in after they watched so many missing loved ones' funerals and learning their elderly relatives had died alone in a nursing home they weren't allowed to visit (which happened in our family) while they partied (okay, Boris was forced to party and eat cake). They really are an awful bunch.

@saltedBubbly

Yes i think Labour would have done a better job - because the Welsh Labour government have. They have been much more cautious and followed that scientific advice rather than headline grabbing and flip flopping policy to suit their popularity ratings

Welsh Labour have not done a better job. They took ages to introduce mask rules in the first place, and came up with dozens of silly restrictions which were evidently designed only to make things different from Westminster. The "firebreak lockdown" was a disaster, it didn't take into account the effect on human behaviour and therefore resulted in case rates spiralling in places like Cardigan which hadn't until then been badly hit.

I mean, what was the point of banning people from the touchline at Rugby matches? It's outdoors for goodness sake. And making supermarkets clingfilm 'non-essential' aisles without even being clear on what counted as 'non-essential'? Then they introduced a law which would fine people for going into work - though as far as I'm aware, it never got enforced.

I'm sure that if it had been in their gift to do so, they'd have gone with the European joint vaccine procurement, which would have dragged the pandemic out much longer.

Despite everything, Welsh case rates have been as bad as everywhere else. Death rates were worse.

@Iggly Why is that relevant when we can make, and should make, comparisons with other governments instead?

It was a response to the OPs question, simply an attempt to get them to give their opinion, nothing more.

Looking at what they've done since they came into power they've
Bumbled out of the single market. Even other European countries not in the EU are part of it.
Underfunded Education and the NHS. People are dying before ambulance get to them hours later
Raised student tuition fees to the highest in the whole world for England
Removed widowed parents allowance. The dead parent pays in before they die and will never get a state pension, so they now profit from parents dying early.

I’d also point to schools having a hellish time in part because they were chronically underfunded to begin with.
Even with all the extra funding the Tories have promised, we won’t get back to 2010 levels of funding until 2023. And loads of that has not actually been delivered.
Computers? My school applied and didn’t get any. We got air monitors which promptly went red (my classroom has no windows). No sign of the air filtration units.
They are responsible for the chronic underfunding.
Last minute pronouncements (all go in on an INSET day and plan for face to face return because they insist that will go ahead only tonne told that night that actually, no it won’t. Redo all the planning in time to start online learning tomorrow…). Random rules based on some imagined way that schools are but are nonsense when actually applied.
I don’t think the schools would have been as badly funded to start with under any other party.

And that’s before we get to the release of people with Covid into care homes, and the personal behaviour of Boris.

Our testing and genome sequencing is one of the best in the world and as far as I'm aware, no other country has a survey similar to the scale of the weekly ONS survey that tracks infections.

However, I think all of the above is probably in place because we have the NHS and are generally very good at science, rather than anything in particular that the Tories have done.

@HeddaGarbled

Furlough was good, IMO, and the financial support for businesses. Don’t know whether Johnson had any or much input there.

Not for the 3 million excluded it was'nt.

Remember the absolute shambles of the 2020 Gcse and A level results?

I'm pro vaccine, massively. But I'm also hugely against authoritarian government.

I'm for people making choices with their lives and not being baby sat by the state.

Look at what's happening in a lot of other countries. It's really extreme. You can't go into a restaurant without some sort of proof that you're vaccinated. People can't work and are fined for not being vaccinated.

Perpetual lockdowns and fear mongering over a few cases of a relatively mild disease ( which is what omicron is for the vaccinated ).

I would rather live in an open society like ours. And whilst I don't agree with everything the tories do and I have never voted for them myself - I do think that it's Boris and his libertarianism that play a part in this.

I know a lot of people in other countries and they're having a really rough time of it. Their governments are still stopping life. At least we are some what less restricted here. I don't think we will introduce vaccine passports domestically for every day things and I think that's right.

And yes you'll all flame me for saying this, I know. I am deluded you'll say.

Germany has got 8 hospital beds per 1000 population
France has got 5.9
Uk has got 2.5
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.BEDS.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true

I don't think you're deluded except when you say 'a few cases'. You know what the figures are. It's a raging pandemic of an extremely infectious disease. It does nobody any good to pretend that's not the case.

[quote AnneWeber]Germany has got 8 hospital beds per 1000 population
France has got 5.9
Uk has got 2.5
data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.BEDS.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true[/quote]
So it's interesting that Germany is in a worse place than us covid wise, even though their health care is way better...

They have more deaths right now and way fewer freedoms than us.

Yeah they let the NHS do the vaccine roll out, rather than let a mate do it for max profit

That's it

Everything else has been shit. It could be worse of course but it could have been much much better

@PermanentTemporary

I don't think you're deluded except when you say 'a few cases'. You know what the figures are. It's a raging pandemic of an extremely infectious disease. It does nobody any good to pretend that's not the case.

Look at New Zealand. They have 9 cases !

Also, why do cases matter if hospitalisation are down ? Omicron is much milder for vaccinated people and just isn't killing as many people.

You can't go into a restaurant without some sort of proof that you're vaccinated

The horror

I think the economic response has been pretty good. They had to do "something" and they had to do it quickly. It wasn't perfect as a result but things could have been so much worse without it. It does worry me that our children will be paying for a generation, but that would have happened anyway. Not sure how much of that was down to Boris mind.

I also think the wait and see response to Omicrom before Christmas turned out to be the right one, probably more through luck than judgement.

I don't think any of this justifies all the atrocious behaviour and he still needs to go.

@OneTC

You can't go into a restaurant without some sort of proof that you're vaccinated

The horror

I don't think it's very nice. Is that how you want to live ? I think it's very sad.

So it's interesting that Germany is in a worse place than us covid wise, even though their health care is way better.
More useful to look at overall outcomes rather than right now, given how covid waxes and wanes in any country. Are you not concerned about people wanting hours for ambulances and dying before they get there? The result of underfunding

Not ideally no

But this isn't ideal really is it?

Loads of people died and your major concern is not having an app on your phone that lets you eat at Harvester

nice 👍

So it's interesting that Germany is in a worse place than us covid wise, even though their health care is way better
You think it's an advantage to have poor health care? OK....

@OneTC

Not ideally no

But this isn't ideal really is it?

Loads of people died and your major concern is not having an app on your phone that lets you eat at Harvester

nice 👍

It's the principle of it that is wrong. It's too much state control and it's dangerous.

@AnneWeber

So it's interesting that Germany is in a worse place than us covid wise, even though their health care is way better You think it's an advantage to have poor health care? OK....

No of course not. But surely have done something right to be living in a more open society right now.

The messaging from the govt hasn’t always been clear but I think the overall message that covid exists, and we need to manage it and learn to live with it (ie build up immunity through vaccine and controlled spread) will help the UK in the long run. Epidemiologists have stated since Feb/March 2020 that once the Pandora’s box that is covid was opened there’s no point trying to reach Zero Covid. Countries like NZ that have tried to persuade their populations otherwise have done them a disservice in my opinion.

I think we’re entering a point in the pandemic where countries, and individuals, who haven’t fully accepted covid is here with us forever will really struggle.

I agree with the comments upthread about a focus on cases numbers now being pretty much irrelevant. It feels like stressing about how many vehicles are on the road when what actually matters is the number of serious road traffic accidents and deaths.

Why is being unhappy about how the PM and his cabinet and general staff have conducted themselves during the lockdowns that the majority had to suffer 'Tory bashing'.

Should we all sit back and say 'poor Boris (Covid) he's just being his usual naughty boy he's always been.' So why does Boris get a free pass amongst Tory lovers then @helpmehelpmetoday - what's so special that he shouldn't be called out for wrongdoing?

New Zealand have gone back into a major red alert situation, 92% of their population are vaccinated! Sorry but I'd hate to live there I really would.

Anyone know how France is doing now? Over 490,000 cases a day at one point a couple of weeks ago