Covid

Madgeorge | 17:40 Thu 18th Jul 2024 | News

19 Answers

Will all the various countrywide emergency planning officers and staff please admit they were useless and form an orderly queue to repay their telephone number salaries?

About Time?

Riot

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newmodarmy

Do you mean for over-reacting or for inadequate reactions?

Madgeorge

Question Author

Headless chickens either way.

naomi24

Of course they were headless chickens. They had no idea what they were dealing with so damned if they did and damned if they didn't. Everything is clearer in hindsight.

Madgeorge

Question Author

With all the unrest in the world, surely a biological crisis should have been considered so some planning needed to be in place.

Or perhaps my definition of planning is different from others?

Madgeorge

Question Author

....or maybe they just ticked the wrong box

newmodarmy

Hopefully we can learn from the countries that did deal with it well. That's if you can name any.

naomi24

There's some interesting stuff on wiki about it under the heading 'Pandemic predictions and preparations prior to the Covid-19 pandemic'. Sorry I can't post a link from my phone.

Ellipsis

March 2015 ...

In 2014, the world avoided a horrific global outbreak of Ebola, thanks to thousands of selfless health workers -- plus, frankly, thanks to some very good luck. In hindsight, we know what we should have done better. So, now's the time, Bill Gates suggests, to put all our good ideas into practice, from scenario planning to vaccine research to health worker training. As he says, "There's no need to panic ... but we need to get going."

davebro3

I think there were pandemic emergency plans in place before covid struck. It would probably have been no worse in human terms & a lost less costly financially to have follwed them.

Madgeorge

Question Author

How many meetings and seminars were held by planning people (not in a Premier Inn I bet) who then went on to pass on the details to their deputies, assistant deputies, assistant assistants etc,etc who were aware they were underfunded and unprepared yet kept taking their salaries (and keeping their fingers crossed) without blowing any whistles?

Perhaps I am too cynical ?

237SJ

I remember the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong. I went there regularly at that time. Nobody in the West gave a *** because it didn't concern them - it was just something that happened thousands of miles away. As soon as these things affect the West, it's a different kettle of fish

newmodarmy

Where I worked we'd had huge, very detailed contingency plans in place for about 20 years for millennium bug, SARS, ebola, bird flu, etc , but by 2015 I felt people were getting weary of it and people on the whole were no longer taking it seriously. And it was all theoretical anyway- there had been no proper major tests lasting more than a day. So I'm not surprised that when Covid came along, the plans were not sufficiently robust and were not oven-ready- and there was a fatal mix of panic and lethargy/scepticism that took over

Old_Geezer

They were clearly all messing up at the time. You just have to look back at the posts here from that period to spot the criticism and sensible options.