[News] Covid response ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’

[zefarelly]

It will come as a bit of a shock but I am in complete agreement with you
A report on the handling of the most important issue in modern times and the PM is on holiday. Not good enough.

Give him his due. He is consistent.

There have been countries that nailed it, NZ the obvious one, others as well but culturally much different so a different proposition.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Including Operation Cygnus in 2016, which looked at the aspects of a global epidemic, but was ignored.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...us-operation-results-court-case-a9592081.html

All our pandemic planning was ignored completely, all WHO pandemic planning was ignored as well

 

[WATFORD zero]

Why are we not looking at what South Korea have done - ✔
The Scientists cannot accurately mathematically model this at this stage - ✔
Experts are experts in narrow areas, don't all agree, and judgements need to be made on their advice - ✔
The politicians role is to take advice and decide strategy - ✔
Most serious epidemic we have faced since the end of WW1 - ✔

These changes need to be made TODAY
The Houses of Parliament should be shut - ✔
The Budget needs to be delayed - ✔
Close the Schools - ✔
Gatherings to be stopped - ✔
People need to WFH - ✔
Self Isolation needs to be introduced - ✔

Hindsight ? Bollocks. This was 14 days before the first lockdown and he had prepared more of a plan for this interview than Johnson and co had for the entire f***ing country

Big fan of Rory but I imagine many can't get past his look (and his pro fox hunting stance). Too much emphasis nowadays about how politicians come across on the tv rather than their actual intelligence. Shame he has faded away.

And here's the truth of it. He isn't funny and has slogans like what Boris has

 

[zefarelly]

Why are we not looking at what South Korea have done - ✔
The Scientists cannot accurately mathematically model this at this stage - ✔
Experts are experts in narrow areas, don't all agree, and judgements need to be made on their advice - ✔
The politicians role is to take advice and decide strategy - ✔
Most serious epidemic we have faced since the end of WW1 - ✔

These changes need to be made TODAY
The Houses of Parliament should be shut - ✔
The Budget needs to be delayed - ✔
Close the Schools - ✔
Gatherings to be stopped - ✔
People need to WFH - ✔
Self Isolation needs to be introduced - ✔

Hindsight ? Bollocks. This was 14 days before the first lockdown and he had prepared more of a plan for this interview that Johnson and co had for the entire f***ing country

I'll never vote tory in my life, but RS is the best thing that never happened to them. just imagine iof they had a compassionate artiuculate intelligent leader. Labour would be dead and buried.

 

[Is it PotG?]

There have been countries that nailed it, NZ the obvious one......

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/new-zealand-covid-update-country-on-knife-edge-as-cases-expected-to-rise-further

 

[mikeyjh]

I'll never vote tory in my life, but RS is the best thing that never happened to them. just imagine iof they had a compassionate artiuculate intelligent leader. Labour would be dead and buried.

The good thing is though, the tories would never elect a compassionate leader, it's not a word that is in the DNA of the party.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Why are we not looking at what South Korea have done - ✔
The Scientists cannot accurately mathematically model this at this stage - ✔
Experts are experts in narrow areas, don't all agree, and judgements need to be made on their advice - ✔
The politicians role is to take advice and decide strategy - ✔
Most serious epidemic we have faced since the end of WW1 - ✔

These changes need to be made TODAY
The Houses of Parliament should be shut - ✔
The Budget needs to be delayed - ✔
Close the Schools - ✔
Gatherings to be stopped - ✔
People need to WFH - ✔
Self Isolation needs to be introduced - ✔

Hindsight ? Bollocks. This was 14 days before the first lockdown and he had prepared more of a plan for this interview than Johnson and co had for the entire f***ing country

I clearly remember thinking at the time that RS was hugely impressive as a person and as a politician

 

[zefarelly]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/new-zealand-covid-update-country-on-knife-edge-as-cases-expected-to-rise-further

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Hardly massive, nor a surprise as theyre miles behind on vaccinations. likewise Aus.

 

[WATFORD zero]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/new-zealand-covid-update-country-on-knife-edge-as-cases-expected-to-rise-further

View attachment 141229

'one expert says'

Quick look over there. Talk about desperation

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

And it's an inquiry led by Tories. Will this finally put a stop to all the "Boris did the best he could nonsense"?

I think that Boris did do the best he could.

The shitter.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Hardly massive, nor a surprise as theyre miles behind on vaccinations. likewise Aus.

Schools still shut. There will be long term issues here.

 

[The Clamp]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/new-zealand-covid-update-country-on-knife-edge-as-cases-expected-to-rise-further

View attachment 141229

I think NZ is held up as an example of success, as you point out that doesn’t necessarily bear scrutiny. My problem with our government is the reasons I believe they reacted how they did. Not least their rush to profit financially from the pandemic and once they’d realised they could, how rapidly they proceeded to do so and how their decisions were dictated by their desire to make sure they and their affiliates profited.

 

[Is it PotG?]

'one expert says'

Quick look over there. Talk about desperation

The Guardian seems to regard it as significant. Good enough for me.

 

[Is it PotG?]

I think NZ is held up as an example of success, as you point out that doesn’t necessarily bear scrutiny. My problem with our government is the reasons I believe they reacted how they did. Not least their rush to profit financially from the pandemic and once they’d realised they could, how rapidly they proceeded to do so.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

 

[Audax]

If only they'd listened to the considerable pandemic and medical knowledge to be found on NSC.

Or just maybe they could have listened to the advice they received back in 2016 when their own SARS/MERS outbreak simulation gave clear recommendations:

* Ensure adequate supply of PPE (before an outbreak)
* Have a ready-to-go Testing and Contract Tracing plan / infrastructure
* Screening at the borders

Where did this government fail so spectacularly in the early months? Here, let me list what I see as 3 of their biggest failures:

* Inadequate supply of PPE
* No ready-to-go Testing and Contract Tracing plan / infrastructure
* No screening at the borders

This report isn't as simple as screaming "hindsight" - it is quite correctly highlighting (and would probably have been even more damning if the exercise Alice recommendations had been known to them) that the government could and should have been better prepared. And, if they'd been better prepared, probably wouldn't have made so many mistakes. So much resource was wasted on procuring PPE because the pre-pandemic stockpiles were completely inadequate. There was clearly no advance plan in place for how to ramp up a test and trace system should one be needed - resulting in the blatantly ludicrous decision to simply abandon the effort entirely until it was too late. And the failures to screen people at the borders (especially those returning from places like Italy when we knew the virus was rampant there), meant that the virus was given a red carpet welcome to get a foothold that made it easy for it to hit the exponential growth threshold.


Edit to add: the official government spokespersons explanation of why they didn't follow the advice of the 2016 simulation is, quite frankly, laughable.

 

[WATFORD zero]

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

That makes sense. Edit it quick

 

[virtual22]

Book one in the series out now.
Stay tuned for Brexit Response 'one of the UK's worst ever economic planning failures', available in all good book stores, early 2022.

Well done - I was thinking before I even opened this thread how many posts it would be before the B word was mentioned - 7! That's not bad for on here to be honest, my bet was 3.

 

[Is it PotG?]

That makes sense. Edit it quick

What ARE you going on about?

 

[Audax]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/new-zealand-covid-update-country-on-knife-edge-as-cases-expected-to-rise-further

View attachment 141229

Unfortunately, New Zealand (and Australia as well) has squandered the good work they did last year by failing to use the time they bought themselves to vaccinate. Instead, both countries took a view that they could take their time on vaccine rollouts. What they failed to consider was that *if* Delta found a way into the country it would f*** them completely. What we're seeing today is the result: they became complacent, didn't vaccinate quickly enough, and Delta bent them over a barrel and gave them a good servicing.

 

[The Clamp]

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I’m not sure what you mean by that.

I think the Tory’s biggest strength is that rightly or wrongly they have a clear vision of where they want this country to be. And one of the reasons they reacted to the pandemic the way they did was that that they did and still do see the crisis as a way to expedite that vision.

As an aside the biggest fault Labour has is that have no clear vision and they thought that by putting Starmer, a smart suited solicitor in charge, he would be what people wanted to see. But he hasn’t delivered what his image promised. He would have probably done well in the 1990’s but that’s not enough in these times. And people see that a mile off.