How Many More Porkies Are We Going To Hear

[teacake44]

I really wish Boris and his health minister would stop dishing out the bull., telling us all that the UK is really well prepared for this virus. The battle plan, having more people manning the 111 number, What for? for them to tell you to self isolate, that's if you get through at all, you may have to listen to a recorded message of the lords prayer while waiting for them to tell you that.
He also states that the NHS as stockpiles of medicines, ( to treat what)?
Well prepared, or even partly prepared would be to have done what China did, masses of beds on stand by, and a lot more than 50/ 500 ventilators in stock. Maybe time to stop giving £3 a month to all the other crapp, and divert ones £3 a month to ventilators, as it don't look like the government worry to much about not having them. Rant over:0)

[ToraToraTora]

pixie, it's not possible to quarantine every person arriving in this country. All the ports air and sea, impossible. the only way would have been to stop all transport to UK from the first day we hear of a case and excuse the pun but that "cure" is a lot worse than the disease.

[Zacs-Master]

Closing ports and airports would be an economic disaster.

[pixie374]

If you say so, ttt. This may work well as natural selection, but putting the convenience of travellers above actual lives, seems odd.
Anyway, we have decided as a country, that it is worth the risk, so that's it really.

[pixie374]

Same to you, really, zacs. K would have had different priorities... but clearly, not popular ones!

[Zacs-Master]

I don’t think your ideas are as much ‘unpopular’ as they are economically......naive.

[pixie374]

Oh yes, I know that, zacs. I was putting lives before profits, yes.
Just as well I'm not a politician, with my warped priorities :-)

[Zacs-Master]

But you wouldn’t be. If the economy collapses, the power station workers will all walk out to be with their families (them putting people first and all that) and then we’re really stuffed.

[jim360]

I don't think it would have been reasonable to close the borders to everybody almost as soon as somebody China coughed. In any case, by then it was probably already too late, given that this disease seems to spread asymptomatically.

For what little it's worth, I haven't seen much yet in the government's approach worth criticising. I don't think Johnson's advice to wash hands is laughable, as I believe someone else suggested elsewhere. I was surprised that the emergency Cobra meeting happened three days after it was announced -- should have been no more than a day after. In as much as the response has been deficient, it's only because the reality is that the disease's progress was always going to be faster than any government could feasibly respond.

I hope that Johnson et al are aware of the dangers. That's what I meant in my first post. It's right for the government to be optimistic, but behind the scenes they should be nowhere near so complacent, and had best prepare for the worst case.

[pixie374]

I think that is a little drama queeny, tbh. If we had just not allowed it into the country in the first place... that would have been easy and perfectly possible.
Now... we don't actually know how bad it might get, people might be off work for weeks etc... it's unknown. That isn't useful either. It would have been better to take a short "hit" for long-term certainty. (I presume you were a Remainer, lol) x

[Zacs-Master]

‘ not allowed it into the country in the first place’

And how would we have done that?

[pixie374]

^^ that was to zacs. Yes, the government were very slow, Jim. It seems more important not to inconvenience or offend people, than actually keep them safe. Let's hope they got it right.

[Khandro]

jim //I don't think Johnson's advice to wash hands is laughable, //

Nor do I, as I've mentioned to you before; my daughter in law is a Uni. Prof. in biology & a has also senior post at the Max Plank institute & that is her advice too.

[pixie374]

Zacs, I have already given an example of that, if you read the thread. It is already in the country, even after we were aware of it existing. Laxness, laziness, apathy, whichever, we have imported it by being careless. It may not matter to most people, but it will be dangerous to some.

[New Judge]

//Why is that, spice? My point is, we could have stopped it coming here, but haven't. Why is that silly?//

It certainly is just as well you are not a politician, pixie. Just looking at Heathrow, it handled 80m passengers last year. Assuming half arrived and half left, that's 40m arrivals - over 100,000 every day. You plan would involve either stopping those movements or quarantining 100,000 people per day. Stopping them is impractical. How would you stop someone who lives here from returning from their holidays or business trips? And how long will it be before they can return under your plan? So we quarantine the. How can you control the movements of the 100,000 people who arrived today, and the next batch arriving tomorrow, and the next day?

When outbreaks like this develop it is virtually impossible to stop its spread. People move about. Of course nobody has yet asked the Chinese whether they are going to stop eating what is effectively roadkill purchased from filthy market places, but that might be a bit too sensitive.

[Zacs-Master]

The only way to have stopped it entering the Uk would have been to close the borders as soon as the first case was known about. I’ve already explains why that is wildly impractical.

[pixie374]

//In any case, by then it was probably already too late, given that this disease seems to spread asymptomatically.//

Is that right, Jim? I thought, like most diseases, that it had an incubation period before symptoms?

[pixie374]

Well, money is important, of course. Let's hope that reassures anyone who might die from it.

[pixie374]

Well, no, nj. Those "impracticalities" are not worthwhile making.

[Zacs-Master]

You’re (I think deliberately) missing my point. If the economy fails, civil unrest will quickly follow meaning that our infrastructure will collapse within days.

[pixie374]

Not deliberately, zacs. I wouldn't do that and I do see your point. Mine was, that we could have stopped it arriving here, very early on- as we have done before.
How a possible endemic across the UK will affect the economy, is something we will maybe find out now.