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 !

@Whothe

Starting from the beginning...

Boris on his hols when the reports starting coming through. He didn’t return not attend crucial meetings.

The initial lockdown was slow to come.

Work from him if you can, go to work if you can’t, use a bus, but don’t use the bus - clear leadership. Fabulous!

Sunak did what he had to do re Furlough. No brainier. Not something that was ingenious at all.

PPE contracts - need to say more?

PPE roll out - shockingly slow overall and terrible for care homes.

The mask - should wearing them be imposed or not was a joke.

Nightingale Hospitals - fabulous to hve more beds. Just a shame they didn’t work out how to magic staff to run them.

It would appear that they didn’t know the difference between work meetings and parties when the rest of us did.

Christmas is defo on in 2020. Oh hang on scrap that.

Kids Are defo back in school in Jan 2021. Scrap that too (day before the start of term).

Vaccine roll out - there were errors. Some classes as CV and ECV were not able to book initially. Different areas didn’t roll out at same time - Bham was on over 70s before surrounding areas had finished their ECV and over 80s.

Let’s remove some money from the very poorest and vulnerable in society even though we know EVERYTHING is going to go up in price.

I’m sure there is more.

Boris has been shocking. He was voted in for the shit show of Brexit. Unfortunately for us he was in situ when this began. If only the 350million a week for the NHS had been true. It might have a helped a a little bit over all this!

And now he is reminiscent of how Trump was in accepting the 2020 Election Result. Clinging on.

All in all, would say they’ve been quite shit really.

Now, now that's sounds like you are bashing the tories. Careful, someone might object

@helpmehelpmetoday

OK. So do you think labour would have done a better job ?

I’m not a labour voter. Yes I do. Or I definitely believe they wouldn’t have done any worse. They wouldn’t have let firms fire and rehire.

I think a good few of the ways they’ve handled things were good ideas, but extremely poorly implemented and regulated, therefore a complete waste of British money. Plus the blatant lies and non following of rules by the government totally negates everything for me.

*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*

This. A pandemic is a once in a lifetime event and we have no idea whether anyone would have done better or worse.

We do however have excellent public health and some really good scientific advisors, between that, academia and research, and the nhs I believe that’s why we’ve come out of this relatively well. Us and israel are looking at getting back to normal while some countries are still dealing with lockdowns and overwhelming case numbers.

The best Boris could do was follow his expert advisors. A stronger leader may have decided to go against them, or may have enforced more strongly, which might not have been better in the long run. But who knows, as this shouldn’t happen again for a long time, in a different era yet again.

Oh and apparently our stats looked relatively bad because we have such efficient tracking and statistics/public health. And have no real desire to hide the reality. Our figures are reasonably accurate, where some other countries aren’t.

Overall I think we did ok. But i think it’s due to the above rather than anything any politician did or would have done.

@User1isnotavailable

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?

Oh I wasn't referring to his latest scandals. I was really thinking about the response. Rather than the parties stuff. Of course that's messed up and he should and will be held accountable.

This woman with breathing difficulties died while waiting an hour for an ambulance, despite her son's repeated calls. That's the result of us having 2.5 nhs beds per 1000 people compared to Germany's 8.
www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-01-26/north-west-ambulance-says-sorry-after-mum-dies-waiting-almost-an-hour-for-help

I appreciate the fact that the UK govt has tried not to be too draconian at any point during the pandemic. When other European countries, like Italy and Spain, confined their citizens to their homes, with no opportunity to go outside for exercise and fresh air, our govt made outdoor exercise a priority. I'd have gone stark raving mad without being able to go out for a run or a walk during the lockdowns - and I'm someone with good mental health in normal times.

The furlough scheme was generous and timely and certainly saved many lives and livelihoods.

Investment in vaccine development from the start, making us one of the first nations to have access to vaccines, and prioritising those most in need to get first access.

Free vaccines for all and often close to home.

Free testing, asymptomatic testing, testing in a centre close to most people's homes, all of which has surely helped to slow the spread.

@zafferana

I appreciate the fact that the UK govt has tried not to be too draconian at any point during the pandemic. When other European countries, like Italy and Spain, confined their citizens to their homes, with no opportunity to go outside for exercise and fresh air, our govt made outdoor exercise a priority. I'd have gone stark raving mad without being able to go out for a run or a walk during the lockdowns - and I'm someone with good mental health in normal times.

The furlough scheme was generous and timely and certainly saved many lives and livelihoods.

Investment in vaccine development from the start, making us one of the first nations to have access to vaccines, and prioritising those most in need to get first access.

Free vaccines for all and often close to home.

Free testing, asymptomatic testing, testing in a centre close to most people's homes, all of which has surely helped to slow the spread.

Well for many on MN we have not been draconian enough..

A pandemic is a once in a lifetime event

Anyone 60+ this is their third pandemic with a similar death toll

Reading some of the comments on this thread about how a Labour govt at Westminster would’ve acted has got me thinking about what impact this would have had on the devolved Welsh and Scottish govts.

It feels like a lot of the stricter Welsh and Scottish covid policies have been implemented to 1) send the message that they’re more left wing and caring than the evil Westminster tories and 2) to flex their independence muscles and implement something different to England simply because they can.

If there was a Labour govt in Westminster would Nicola Sturgeon have acted in the same way that she has? Would she have gone full on lockdown like NZ Jacinta Ardern to demonstrate that she/Scotland was more left-wing and ‘caring’ than Westminster? Or - though I can’t quite imagine this! - would she position herself as more libertarian than the Westminster govt to make sure the point that Scotland was different and has its own powers was heard loud and clear?

I didn’t agree with a lot of the restrictions. It now sounds like the government didn’t either! I am very angry with them for not having the guts to actually behave like a libertarian government. I am furious that they opened non essential shops before schools. I do think that the Labour Party would have been more restrictive and cautious. I think many countries have done worse and some have done a bit better. Covid has made me realise that a lot of people actually take comfort in being given rules and are afraid to take personal responsibility. I find that very depressing.

we have such efficient tracking and statistics/public health

160k people died from efficient tracking and statistics?

@Grida

I didn’t agree with a lot of the restrictions. It now sounds like the government didn’t either! I am very angry with them for not having the guts to actually behave like a libertarian government. I am furious that they opened non essential shops before schools. I do think that the Labour Party would have been more restrictive and cautious. I think many countries have done worse and some have done a bit better. Covid has made me realise that a lot of people actually take comfort in being given rules and are afraid to take personal responsibility. I find that very depressing.

It's really pathetic and depressing how obsessive some people got with the rules. Checking for the tiniest nuances and most far flung potential scenarios.

Just use your common sense. We are not in North Korea.

I don't get it and didn't get it at the time.

I am glad the restrictions have been less severe than many other places and that they seem to want to move forward with living with the fact that Covid will always be around. I think they made the right call over not locking down at Christmas.

I do believe they should have locked down a lot earlier initially though.

I agree with pp I’m glad we have fewer restrictions now and didn’t go with calls from many to lockdown over omicron (or ‘circuit breaker’)

@zafferana

I appreciate the fact that the UK govt has tried not to be too draconian at any point during the pandemic. When other European countries, like Italy and Spain, confined their citizens to their homes, with no opportunity to go outside for exercise and fresh air, our govt made outdoor exercise a priority. I'd have gone stark raving mad without being able to go out for a run or a walk during the lockdowns - and I'm someone with good mental health in normal times.

The furlough scheme was generous and timely and certainly saved many lives and livelihoods.

Investment in vaccine development from the start, making us one of the first nations to have access to vaccines, and prioritising those most in need to get first access.

Free vaccines for all and often close to home.

Free testing, asymptomatic testing, testing in a centre close to most people's homes, all of which has surely helped to slow the spread.

This too

@helpmehelpmetoday

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.

No, I agree with you! I'm a libertarian and, generally speaking, would much rather make my own decisions, but the situation has changed HUGELY since the start of the pandemic. While I hated the lockdowns with a passion, they were necessary to stop the uncontrolled spread/mass deaths/overwhelming of the NHS. Until the nation, as a whole, could be vaccinated there was no other way.

Now that we're all vaccinated though I think the time has come to open up and do away with restrictions. And I currently have Covid, so I know the risk. But quite honestly, I think we all need to get vaccinated and then probably many of us need to get Covid to build that herd immunity that has so far been just out of reach each time we get a new wave. Building mass immunity is the only way and sadly the vaccines can't do that on their own.

I think the vaccine rollout for adults was good. Also access to free LFTs. Furlough was helpful in saving jobs, but I'm not sure why it was an all or nothing approach - maybe partial furlough would have been too tricky to implement. I'm not particularly wedded to any political party, but I do find this particular government awful. I think our covid response would have been managed better by others, even accepting it was/is a difficult situation for any leader/party and giving a lot of leeway for that. I think children have been treated dismally throughout - in terms of what they've been asked to give up and then in providing no protection to them after that. The focus on freedoms (covid related), whilst pushing for non covid policies that erode freedoms is also galling. I feel like personal gain, lack of accountability and sod the country are at the heart of this government overall.

I think it’s very easy to list all the failing obviously.

Things I think we did right:
Not locking children indoors like Spain did, horrific!
Holding their nerve during the Omicron wave and not locking down again.
Opening up fully in July.
Furlough.

That’s it really.

I think the decision to focus on rapid vaccine roll out was good. But I strongly suspect various scientists and epidemiologists heavily influenced that call, also I think it was fuelled by sheer desperation to end the money pit that was furlough.

Everything this government did was too late. They wasted time at every stage. They laughed at us obeying the law whilst they didn’t. They filled their pockets with my tax money and can’t be bothered to Perdue the others who cheated their way to taking my taxes as lockdown payments. They blamed my profession for their decisions.

No, I don’t think anything they have done has been good, and what they are doing right now in removing restrictions as case rates rise is utter madness.

*persue

Booster was good call plus the decision on AZ over 65 when others stopped

The one thing was school closures were too long and too blanket. Summer 2020 should have been open to all and more dc in in January 21

It's very easy to find the bad.
At the beginning I was mightily relieved that Corbyn wasn't in charge.
No government or leader really knew what they were doing and hindsight is a wonderful thing.

In hindsigh tthe good things

Free LFTs.
Testing (though not the tracing part)
Sequencing
Furlough and business support.
Vaccines. The decision to throw money at vaccine development and to pre-order vast quantities of vaccine was the single best thing.
The risk of allowing freedom v protecting vulnerable is a tightrope.
I didn't agree with the opening up at first but it does look, again in hindsight, that it was the right call.

The bad are fairly obvious but Boris's personal failure to have a grip on details is his downfall.

Anyone 60+ this is their third pandemic with a similar death toll

When/what were the other two? Last one I’m aware of was spanish flu 100 years ago. I’m not that far of 60 and this is my first pandemic, epidemics yes, but nothing like this.

You say similar death toll, but if you mean non pandemic events like flu the death tolls are similar because we had pandemic restrictions.

I agree there were many, many mistakes, and much incompetence.
There were a couple of good things though. The vaccination programme has gone smoothly, and the testing is good, especially regarding the lateral flow tests. I have relations in both Canada and Australia who struggle to find tests. The Canadian relative has to drive 40 miles to collect a test, and pay for it when he gets there. Similarly in Australia, though not as far. They are currently struggling to find any.