It's so confusing to me how every country in Western Europe has the ability to increase their testing drastically, while The Netherlands are still stuck with a shortage of fluid needed. We have the capacity for 29k a day, but are stuck on less than 10k

That's still not 100,000 PER DAY. That's what they promised and they have failed to deliver it.

 

Perhaps, but they still have one day to deliver as the figure of 81,000 is for 29th April. So it will be interesting to see the figure tomorrow. If anything it's a massive achievement from where we were a few weeks ago. Even I thought he was talking out of his arse.

While I get your point about China- and Wuhan in particular. I personally took a lot of that out as Chinese PR to demonstrate to the world, not how bad it was, but how they were containing the virus. Let's be clear as well, as far as I can recall it took until the end of January for it to be confirmed this virus was transmitted between person to person. Now OK I get they need more data, but there was clearly a lack of solid information being shared between agencies and governments across the world. Clearly corinavirus is not as deadly as SARS for example- the issue with Covid-19 is that it is hidden and unless you test yourself regularly you are transmitting the virus when it is at its most effective in the early stages.

 

And to answer blacksquare's point - I don't think anyone here is arguing that the British government did not mess up, they did. In the key window from all the different press releases it seems they dithered in a key time period. Stats of death statsitics tell a story, but with anything you can maniuplate measures to show a story, which I think the British givernment are doing, but I also believe this is true of the rest of the world too. We do need to understand the economical impact as clearly this will have a large social effect, but imo the biggest falt of the government and what will come up is the fact they planned for a flu pandemic and not shutting down large gatherings and bars & resturaunts sooner.

Yes, the original reports said that there was "no evidence" of person-to-person transmission. Whether that was true, I know not.

 

It is also true that there was a lot of emphasis in initial reports that it was less deadly than SARS. I think it genuinely took some time to discover how quickly it was spreading, particularly as a result of the number of asymptomatic cases. It was only as it became clear how many people showed only mild symptoms that people started to conclude that there were almost certainly a lot of people who showed no symptoms at all. It also seems reasonable to assume that a lot of people who showed mild symptoms in the early stages of the outbreak shrugged it off and carried on as normal. That isn't really anybody's fault but it almost certainly helped to ensure that the virus was present in a lot of places before anyone realised what was happening.

Perhaps, but they still have one day to deliver as the figure of 81,000 is for 29th April. So it will be interesting to see the figure tomorrow. If anything it's a massive achievement from where we were a few weeks ago. Even I thought he was talking out of his arse.

No they don't. The promise was 100,000 PER DAY, not 100,000 on one day.

No they don't. The promise was 100,000 PER DAY, not 100,000 on one day.

 

I agree they lied and failed to deliver.

 

And as per one of my earlier posts Russia have now done 3.4 million tests in a short time frame why are we not able to do the same

Yes, the original reports said that there was "no evidence" of person-to-person transmission. Whether that was true, I know not.

 

It is also true that there was a lot of emphasis in initial reports that it was less deadly than SARS. I think it genuinely took some time to discover how quickly it was spreading, particularly as a result of the number of asymptomatic cases. It was only as it became clear how many people showed only mild symptoms that people started to conclude that there were almost certainly a lot of people who showed no symptoms at all. It also seems reasonable to assume that a lot of people who showed mild symptoms in the early stages of the outbreak shrugged it off and carried on as normal. That isn't really anybody's fault but it almost certainly helped to ensure that the virus was present in a lot of places before anyone realised what was happening.

 

I think the WHO reports caused some initial confusion. I'd be interested to know how they thought it was spreading if it was not person to person. It was a really silly thing to make a statement about in hindsight. I'm not at any means saying it's their fault, but there has to be some notion of accountability to be so wide of the mark.

 

 

No they don't. The promise was 100,000 PER DAY, not 100,000 on one day.

 

Perhaps, it is all subjective. You would expect if they can test 100,000 on the 30th April, there would be the means for that to carry on in to May.

I agree they lied and failed to deliver.

 

And as per one of my earlier posts Russia have now done 3.4 million tests in a short time frame why are we not able to do the same

 

They didn't have the lab space by all accounts. Sounds like they have paid off universities and pharamacuticeal labs so they have the capacity to do the lab work now.

Apparently Boris claims we’re past the peak. I knew they were waiting until they had something good to say to wheel him out. I expect this is how people will forget the piss poor preparation and vote him in again in four years.

I'm really not trying to disrespect anyone but I don't get how so many are being apologists for the government's poor (at best) handling of this?

Does t matter about a figure like 100k anyway it was stupid of him to produce a figure he would be tied to. More terrible is it took this long to get to this level of testing compared to powerful people like Prince Charles getting it in Mid March immediately with mild symptoms.

Edited April 30, 20205 yr by Steve201

I think personally that the 100,000 a day target is a distraction technique which of course the press devour because they love numbers- little point in testing 100,000 people a day when the pandemic is subsiding and only about 4K are testing positive. Would have been a lot more useful earlier in the pandemic before and during the peak. Too little, too late.

 

It's a bit like them pledging to source and provide satisfactory levels of PPE in September. THat's great and everything, but utterly meaningless and doesn't help the 100 or so frontline workers who have died as a direct result of these failings.

I'm really not trying to disrespect anyone but I don't get how so many are being apologists for the government's poor (at best) handling of this?

 

Amen

Nonetheless, having the ability on lock to test 100k a day would be useful if - as is likely - we see a second peak after relaxing some of the current restrictions.

 

Of course, knowing this government, as soon as they open up again they'll throw away a bunch of the testing kits and cancel the contracts only to be caught with their knickers down as soon as things get even slightly worse again.

I think personally that the 100,000 a day target is a distraction technique which of course the press devour because they love numbers- little point in testing 100,000 people a day when the pandemic is subsiding and only about 4K are testing positive. Would have been a lot more useful earlier in the pandemic before and during the peak. Too little, too late.

 

It's a bit like them pledging to source and provide satisfactory levels of PPE in September. THat's great and everything, but utterly meaningless and doesn't help the 100 or so frontline workers who have died as a direct result of these failings.

 

Exactly

Nonetheless, having the ability on lock to test 100k a day would be useful if - as is likely - we see a second peak after relaxing some of the current restrictions.

 

Of course, knowing this government, as soon as they open up again they'll throw away a bunch of the testing kits and cancel the contracts only to be caught with their knickers down as soon as things get even slightly worse again.

 

Indeed it'll be austerity for the poor again after this is all over.

I'm really not trying to disrespect anyone but I don't get how so many are being apologists for the government's poor (at best) handling of this?

 

I don’t think they have handled it badly at all post lockdown. Clearly they are taking the advice of the science when before I don’t think anyone really understood the data as much as they told us they did. It also doesn’t help when some of the challenges are under so much scrutiny, you can’t just turn water in to wine. They messed up badly (dithering, PPE, Boris handshaking, slow foreign travel advice) in some stages, there is no denying that, but that was always going to be the case with such a shit and inexperienced cabinet. Everything is great with hindsight.

 

I do think in the chain of command there are too many stakeholders. Isn’t there supposed to be about 20+ members of SAGE? Surely you don’t need that many.

I think they did and you don't need the benefit of hindsight to see that the UK was going a different route to many other European countries at the beginning of March despite all the examples warnings and advice.

I think they did and you don't need the benefit of hindsight to see that the UK was going a different route to many other European countries at the beginning of March despite all the examples warnings and advice.

 

How have they handled it badly post-lockdown? We literally did what most other countries in the world did whilst taking a logical step to social factors. Better airport screening should have been there post-locjdown, although I guess this was a resource factor and these ridiclous guidelines about exericse and being able to travel in your car if you are exercsing for the same time it took you to travel aside, mostly, they have done OK.

 

There's still much debate to be had about that anyway as governments (not just the UK, the rest of the world too) want us to get infected at a slow and managable rate, otherwise what's the solution, just sit inside all day? News on the vaccine is very promising and from what I've read, a lot of the pre-work helped through the vaccinne for MERS, but it doesn't account if the virus mutates, be it a milder or deadlier form.

 

 

Indeed it'll be austerity for the poor again after this is all over.

 

Given what the budget was going to be like berfore Covid-19 and the Tories' wins in the Labour heartlands, I very much doubt they will subject people to similar levels of austerity over the last decade. Especially in regards to things like pay freezes for public sector workers and underfunding of the NHS given the current pandemic. I feel that they'll end up raising taxes whilst keeping borrowing higher than they otherwise would.

 

They've given the go ahead to resume HS2 construction, which will end up costing £100 billion+. If the Tories repeat austerity at the same or worse levels, then I feel they won't be in government come the next election.

How have they handled it badly post-lockdown? We literally did what most other countries in the world did whilst taking a logical step to social factors. Better airport screening should have been there post-locjdown, although I guess this was a resource factor and these ridiclous guidelines about exericse and being able to travel in your car if you are exercsing for the same time it took you to travel aside, mostly, they have done OK.

 

There's still much debate to be had about that anyway as governments (not just the UK, the rest of the world too) want us to get infected at a slow and managable rate, otherwise what's the solution, just sit inside all day? News on the vaccine is very promising and from what I've read, a lot of the pre-work helped through the vaccinne for MERS, but it doesn't account if the virus mutates, be it a milder or deadlier form.

 

The start of the lockdown was shoddy for one. "Avoid going to pubs, cinema etc" just before the mother's day weekend - and lots of people went out regardless. The advice was vague at first.

 

Testing should've been ramped up a lot quicker.

 

They should've joined the EU scheme to bulk buy PPE. They had multiple chances to join, but did not do so.