stumuz1 wrote:clv101 wrote: The bluff and spin can work when the economy is on the up, but is wholly inadequate when TSHTF. They get revealed to be the incompetent charlatans they are.
Incompetent? Let's use your logic of closing down the economy in February when we first knew of the virus. Yes we would have better outcomes now in terms of spread and deaths.
But let us apply this logic to the SARS outbreak. You would have closed the economy, sent the grandchildren the massive bill of lost prosperity and prospects. The same for MERS and the same for Swineflu.
Result a third world disfunctional country, because of a destroyed economy.
A ppe education would send you down the reasonably foreseeable route, i.e objectively a novel virus has come out of Asia. What happened last time?
HMG can't deny that 'Risk of Pandemic' has been top of the National Risk Register for 10+ years and the #1 priority of any government is to protect its people ?
Think I read on here that Jeremy Hunt chaired a Cabinet 'War Game' on it, which is a big positive.
However, HMG Policy was still to cut funding for the NHS and Public Health, stopping provision of bursaries for training nurses, failing to stockpile PPE/Equipment etc. etc.
It's all about priorities, and unfortunately this wasn't one - probably partly because Politicians (of all colours) are conditioned to only think in electoral cycles.
In fact, the ONLY priority for the last 3/4 years has been Brexit.
In terms of this outbreak, we had the massive advantage of seeing what was happening in China, Italy, Spain etc. We could see that the virus was more easily transmitted than SARS/MERS/Swine Flu and how China and maybe S. Korea got on top of things.
If a PPE education sends you down the reasonably foreseeable route, they must have been sleeping for a few weeks.... I know that hindsight is a wonderful thing, but plenty of the more practically minded on here could see what was happening, what needed doing, and when.... Lots of examples, but the one that stands out for me was allowing the flights continue, with not even any testing/quarantine for passengers...
On the positive side, I think the speed in which the Nightingale Hospitals have been set up has been amazing.