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Coronavirus

Despite Boris, Cummings and Gove being the team behind Brexit, I don't dislike them. That said, it is clear this government - trusting their experts? - were not agile enough. Fair play they changed track, from herd immunity, which is what Sweden seems to be following, to a contain approach. But either way, we needed them to act fast and think ahead. And this government with experts or not, didn't.

We don't have testing kit - for me this is the biggest bo bo of the lot. The WHO made it simple saying "test, test, test" about a month back. We still can't test many NHS workers. Wtf!? 1 in 4 NHS staff are off, and the small number of tests carried out, suggests only 15% of those isolating have the virus!

Our government had time to address this. They failed so far. If there are shortages of chemicals for testing, commander some planes, send representatives to the factories in China... Whatever. Do what you have to do and fast. Ventilators are maybe not as crucial. To be frank, those that require them, don't always pull through, and I don't think they save as many lives as we initially thought. Though of course, the UK needs more, and this government did drop the ball on that too.

We can't go back, so now hopefully we get the testing going, both to track the virus, and to allow those with antibodies to help others. Going back to your experts point - how can we not have testing facilities when there are supposed experts telling Bojo and chums what to do? Germany is testing our total corona tests since this began, every week. Is our government on top of this, thinking ahead, acting fast? Not yet.


As I said on here a couple of days ago, there are going to be some serious questions asked when this all settles down.

To date, our response as a country has seemed entirely reactive - South Korea were proactive, and they were successfully proactive far enough ahead of things becoming worse for us to allow us to take steps to mirror their approach. We obviously didn’t.
 
I like theories. But there are tests to check if people have the virus - we know how to. The government have simply failed to buy enough chemicals that the test uses, or put in place the infrastructure to carry out the testing. That really is poor.

That mistake not to buy or make the required chemicals will ultimately cost many lives. Cost many billions. And will leave the UK paralysed for longer.
It will cost lives but very much doubt it will cost us billions due to the age of those dying.
 
This might help answer your question from last week

Regardless of tactic/approach testing should be a priority. Both types of test ASAP and in as larger numbers as possible. It the only data that can confirm the landscape.

For one of them to say 'testing became less of a priority, so focus shifted to beds/ventilators' is nonsense. It not an either/or BOTH are a priority and there are plenty of people and resources to help.

To want to 'centralise' testing. Why. It takes longer for swabs to arrive at the centre and with modern tech it's not hard to centralise the data but not the testing. As long as staff are trained, there is no problem. A show of hands/call out for lab services is all it needs.

The government have the 'bonus' in this situation that when the require help in many areas most companies are doing nothing, due to the virus and so are an army of the general public, so the resource pool is massive. Tap it.
 
I expect Sadiq is doing this already then ??

Footballers should sacrifice their salaries' - Mayor of London

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has criticised Premier League footballers for not sacrificing their salaries to cut club costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: "My view is always that those who are the least well off should get the most help.

“Highly paid football players are people who can carry the greatest burden and they should be the first one to, with respect, sacrifice their salary rather than the person selling the programme or the person who does catering or the person who probably doesn’t get anywhere near the salary some of the Premier League footballers get.

“It should be those with the broadest shoulders who go first because they can carry the greatest burden and have probably got savings, rather than those who were in catering or hospitality who have probably got no savings and live week by week and who probably won’t get the benefits for five weeks.”
 
I expect Sadiq is doing this already then ??

Footballers should sacrifice their salaries' - Mayor of London

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has criticised Premier League footballers for not sacrificing their salaries to cut club costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: "My view is always that those who are the least well off should get the most help.

“Highly paid football players are people who can carry the greatest burden and they should be the first one to, with respect, sacrifice their salary rather than the person selling the programme or the person who does catering or the person who probably doesn’t get anywhere near the salary some of the Premier League footballers get.

“It should be those with the broadest shoulders who go first because they can carry the greatest burden and have probably got savings, rather than those who were in catering or hospitality who have probably got no savings and live week by week and who probably won’t get the benefits for five weeks.”
Sadik Khan said:
Footballers should give me the opportunity to get my unceasingly flappy gob in front of some journalists.
 
It will cost lives but very much doubt it will cost us billions due to the age of those dying.

A 13 year-old died from Coronavirus in the UK yesterday. Some teens have died, and plenty in their twenties and thirties. More and more succumbing with no underlying conditions (even though that group, for government statistics sake, includes everyone from smokers through to the overweight). The more we know about this virus the more it seems pretty indiscriminate who it takes.
 
A 13 year-old died from Coronavirus in the UK yesterday. Some teens have died, and plenty in their twenties and thirties. More and more succumbing with no underlying conditions (even though that group, for government statistics sake, includes everyone from smokers through to the overweight). The more we know about this virus the more it seems pretty indiscriminate who it takes.

Clearly the tragedy of a 13 year old dying grabs attention and is a focus, but it is exceedingly rare. 1 in a million kind of odds - extremely unlucky. Previous stats showed that 90% of those over 80 years old recover from this virus. People are getting disproportionately freaked. This helps with the lockdown and will save lives so it is no bad thing short term.
 
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Of course we need immigrants it when I’ve tried to employ people from ex colonised countries with suitable qualifications we have to get a tiered EU visa
That’s been in place for years
We don’t and isn’t for someone from Hungary for example
That visa costs money and is a risk and there are varying levels (4 I think). That’s EU rules not UK rules (unless my HR were telling me lies)
Don’t think for one second I’m anti anyone coming here and adding value, i welcome it. But I also don’t get why it was made so hard for people from countries we robbed

I work with loads of South Africans and it a mare for them to get a visa here too
My wife is Thai, and we just had to give up to get a visa for her. We wanted to go on a holiday so I could go to a game, and she go shopping, but we had to cancel. It was ridiculous. We are married, she has residence and work permit for 5 years in Norway, but it was hopeless to get a visa. We had to meet in person at the embassy in Oslo, 1000km away, no more than 3months prior to planned visit, and no less than 1 month. And there is no guarantee that she would even get a visa! Then we would have to go to the embassy again to get the visa before going.
It's designed to be so difficult that people don't bother. And it's racist, because now she holds a Norwegian passport, and can go without applying for a Visa.
 
2000 NHS frontline staff tested since the outbreak began.

This cant be right?

We were running at 5,6,7,000 tests a day. How can only 2,000 NHS workers be tested?
 
The way the numbers are reported has changed apparently

I thought that was the second, separate figure that was reported yesterday which for the first time counted deaths having occurred outside hospital (up to 20 March), but attributed on the death certificate to corona-virus (e.g. those dying in care homes or in own homes)?
I may well have that wrong though and something else has changed.
Either way I think we need to get used to some big increases over the next couple of weeks.
 
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