Coronavirus

[Simon Pieman]

If you look in your profile there is an 'ignore user options' section and it will show you there

[Audrey]

I have 2. Would have thought more.

[JBZ]

If you look in your profile there is an 'ignore user options' section and it will show you there

Very helpful- thanks

[Bob's Orange]

3 now Audrey

[Mister Lorenzo]

Bollocks. We had a stockpile of PPE from the early 2000s for precisely such an eventuality. From 2014, it was allowed to diminish by 40%. Likewise, the govt were told in 2016 after Operation Cygnus that the NHS would not be able to cope with a pandemic, but chose not to act. These are failings.
Straw man argument. Don't think anyone's critcised Johnson for letting Ministers do their jobs. He's being criticised for not doing his. Specifically for faffing about delaying implementing a lockdown, costing thousands of lives; failing to take action early on getting testing infrastructure ramped up, hampering any way of knowing how widespread the virus is, which will either delay us coming out of lockdown or make coming out early riskier than it needs to be; failing to take action to get the diminished PPE stockpile which had been allowed to wither largely by his predecessors ramped up when it became clear that it would be needed. All these failings have demonstrably cost lives and he is rightly criticised for it.

Strange, as if you look at the Global Health Index research into this, the UK ranked 2nd out of 195 in terms of being prepared for a pandemic.

https://www.ghsindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2019-Global-Health-Security-Index.pdf
Page 20 if you want to skip straight to the ratings.

Now I'm not sure who to believe here, them or you.

[RobertT]

Being prepared on paper and actually being prepared are very different beasts.  As I mentioned, I am sure South Korea used our plan as a basis for theirs.  The difference is they acted, we didn't.  It's like we lost the plan or someone forgot the password for the file.  PaulD also reiterated the point that it wasn't the Plan itself that was a problem in the 2016 effort, it was the implementation.  Every company has a Business Continuity Plan, very few know it and enact it when disaster strikes, they fumble about with well meaning experts trying to react.  I've tested a few in my time, very rarely do they get implemented well, even when we know it isn't real and the pressure is off.

[pauld]

Being prepared on paper and actually being prepared are very different beasts.  As I mentioned, I am sure South Korea used our plan as a basis for theirs.  The difference is they acted, we didn't.  It's like we lost the plan or someone forgot the password for the file.  PaulD also reiterated the point that it wasn't the Plan itself that was a problem in the 2016 effort, it was the implementation.  Every company has a Business Continuity Plan, very few know it and enact it when disaster strikes, they fumble about with well meaning experts trying to react.  I've tested a few in my time, very rarely do they get implemented well, even when we know it isn't real and the pressure is off.

What Rob said. I'd add that the US is ranked 1st. Who have also, thanks to their own incompetent and fumbling leader, dramatically failed on their implementation. We had the plan, we failed to implement it. And May's govt allowed stocks of PPE to run down by 40% compared to what they had been at under the Coalition. The govt, this one under Johnson and the last under May, fucked up.

[michael]

Well, that is absolutely fantastic news that we had the 2nd best plan.

In your face, Germany!!

[pauld]

On a more positive note, it's encouraging to see No 10 briefing that Johnson is opposed to a hasty exit from lockdown after stories over the weekend that appeared to suggest Gove's "run this thing hot" approach (i.e. early exit before the outbreak had started to be contained) was the running strategy. Obviously we'll see what they actually *do* as opposed to what they say, as the two aren't always the same but maybe they are actually learning from the catastrophic failures they've made so far?

[pauld]

The Danish govt has said that companies which are registered in tax havens won't be eligible for their Covid19 business support scheme. If you don't put in, you don't get to take out

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-18/denmark-extends-business-aid-to-increase-spending-by-15-billion

[Ardiles]

Rishi Sunak has a talent.  He's a Tory who manages not to bring me out in a rash.  Not quite sure how he manages that.  He does empathy/compassion well enough that, deep down, I'm not that sure he's a proper Tory anyway.  He's been a bit evasive today, but I feel he's answered his questions a bit more directly than anyone else lately.

[tans]

The Danish govt has said that companies which are registered in tax havens won't be eligible for their Covid19 business support scheme. If you don't put in, you don't get to take out

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-18/denmark-extends-business-aid-to-increase-spending-by-15-billion

Good. Should do that here.

Fuck Richard Branson

[Bogus Dave]

I’ve only got the chart for England, but daily corrected numbers (I.e deaths per day they happened) is showing quite a clear slowing

[pauld]

I’ve only got the chart for England, but daily corrected numbers (I.e deaths per day they happened) is showing quite a clear slowing

That's encouraging. Expect them to spike up a bit again tomorrow as immediate post-weekend always seems to dip artificially, but maybe we have got past the peak?

[Outletred]

On a more positive note, it's encouraging to see No 10 briefing that Johnson is opposed to a hasty exit from lockdown after stories over the weekend that appeared to suggest Gove's "run this thing hot" approach (i.e. early exit before the outbreak had started to be contained) was the running strategy. Obviously we'll see what they actually *do* as opposed to what they say, as the two aren't always the same but maybe they are actually learning from the catastrophic failures they've made so far?

They haven't got everything right, but this is a one in a generation event something that we have never faced before.

They have been constantly guided by scientific advice of these matters- this changes in line with when more is known about the virus and pandemic.

Many issues being faced are the same shortages elsewhere- and the WHO did not even declare a pandemic until March.

What seems to be being missed is that China blatantly lied to the world/WHO about the virus- this is who should be being questioned if anyone at the moment. No way did they only have 3k deaths- but it is odd that barely any cases in Shanghai? I wonder why....

In summary- mistakes are made and will have been made by many other countries across the world at this time- the key is learning from them for the future. This whole experience has been a horrible learning curve for us and other countries in the world.

If anyone though thinks Steptoe/Dotty Diane would have done better then they are deluded