So what would you have done different , or do now, to deal with the pandemic?
You know it’s very easy to criticise from the sidelines, though I understand now why you feel as you do if Covid has taken your brother-in-law.
I’m assuming you’d favour an earlier lockdown in March? Possibly of a far longer duration until a vaccine was found?
Your reference to War cabinets is a bit of a non-sequitur. Totally unrelated and irrelevant to the current Covid situation though I wouldn’t fancy my chances shooting down an incoming virus.
It has the ring of truth though.
I believe in March he imposed the first lockdown rather than go for his then preferred option of herd immunity when he was reportedly told there could/would be 240,000 deaths without lockdown, but optimistically 24,000 deaths with one.
Boris warned ‘ice rinks may have to be used to store dead bodies’
Boris Johnson finally agreed to a second national lockdown after reportedly being told of grim plans to use ice skating rinks as mortuaries for coronavirus victims. The Prime Minister is said to have fought to avoid shutting down again, amid fears it would cripple the economy and lead to a ‘nightmare before Christmas’ for businesses. But he could not ignore the devastating predictions that a second wave will be ‘twice as bad as the first’, potentially seeing up to 85,000 deaths this winter.
Of course, this is just the press “scaremongering” … the “war” will be over by Christmas … :!:
Tut. Tut.
I’ll leave you to it. Everyone handles Covid and their fear of it in different ways.
Me? I’m going to dunk some ginger nuts.
Keep well and safe Omah. :hug:
That IS a problem with so-called “herd immunity” (without vaccination) - vast numbers (up to 90% of a population) have to be infected but vast numbers (up to 10% of a population) will die … that’s why, AFAIK, it’s never been implemented (officially) by any country in the world.
For those interested, here’s a table illustrating the levels of infection required to achive “herd immubity”
When a critical proportion of the population becomes immune, called the herd immunity threshold (HIT) or herd immunity level (HIL), the disease may no longer persist in the population, ceasing to be endemic.
Herd immunity is vulnerable to the free rider problem. Individuals who lack immunity, particularly those who choose not to vaccinate, free ride off the herd immunity created by those who are immune. As the number of free riders in a population increases, outbreaks of preventable diseases become more common and more severe due to loss of herd immunity.
Lockdowns are a waste of time anyway.
All they do is delay the inevitable.
If you’ve not been exposed to the virus already, restricting contact now will only mean that you will STILL be vulnerable after restrictions ease.
If you want to minimise your own risk of catching this virus you need to be sensible, it’s as simple as that: restrict your contact with other people as much as you can and take sensible precautions - it’s now quite obvious that face coverings aren’t working* so even at the times you need to wear one, do NOT rely on their keeping the virus at bay and be as strict as possible regarding social distancing.
If the wearing of face coverings did either prevent infection or decrease the severity of infection we would not be seeing the rapid and large increase in the rates of infection that we are seeing now.
It’s not just here in the UK either.
I see now. You are just being rather silly and sarcy because I said Boris is doing his best under difficult circumstances, and you obviously don’t agree.
However it doesn’t answer my genuine question, which is why are Covid patients going into ordinary hospitals instead of Nightingales?
Presumably there is a reason, so if you don’t know it, perhaps you could just kindly say so?
"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. "
United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002
Interesting opinion piece on the ABC web site from their European correspondent about Boris and his handling of the second wave:
On the weekend, the British people were told for the first time ever their health system may not be able to care for them within weeks.
Yes, that’s the same nation that was bombed to smithereens by the Germans during The Blitz in Word War II.
After a chaotic day of political decision making, and well into their Saturday evening (local time), Prime Minister Boris Johnson told them very soon they could turn up to a hospital, in say Liverpool or London, and be turned away.
The no vacancy sign would be up around the country and people would die after being turned away from emergency departments.
Is there anything grimmer than that?
By the time the Prime Minister delivered that news, he had already presided over a day of complete political chaos.
In times of crisis clear, concise, political leadership is a not just a desire of the masses but a must for the stability of a nation.
The message does not need to be Churchillian, but decisive clarity always helps.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has pushed the UK into a very deep crisis, and England precisely does not have a steady hand steering the ship.
Let’s look back at the weekend of indecision and political panic, as an example.
On Saturday, Britain woke to news reports that they’d be facing another national lockdown.
Behind the walls of Downing Street, Boris Johnson was fuming.
… and I mean the Thunderbird heroes not the other one.
