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What are your opinions on how Boris Johnson has handled the COVID-19 crisis?
I’m seeing him get a lot of negative press on how he has handled it, but I personally don’t see what he has done wrong so I’m interested in what others think about it, has he handled it wrong or are the press just looking for someone to blame?
Yes, I agree with all of this.
On top of that we've had years of austerity aimed at the NHS, which means we go into the Covid-19 pandemic with fewer doctors, nurses, other HCPs, ITU beds, regular hospital beds, ventilators, etc per capita than most other EU nations.
Our capacity has pretty quickly been overwhelmed which has led to the cancelling of a lot of other treatment.
The advice to the public was confusing and late. Even today the messages are mixed, because the law doesn't match the guidance.
We had mass sporting events in mid-March (eg, Cheltenham Gold Cup (a 4 day horse racing event) which brought 250,000 people from all over to Cheltenham, (which has a population of about 100,000 normally), and then those people went home probably taking covid-19 with them.
What are you agreeing with? You seem to have not replied to the post instead of a comment.
To be fair, I still haven't seen one leader who isn't critized by his lack of action against COVID-19. One could say South Korea but the privacy issues emerge. So, although I don't know what Boris has or hasn't done, it is safe to say that isn't far off any european leader right now.
(Don't worry, I don't forget about Taiwan, yet I also don't know why they did a wonderful job.)
Singapore is still doing well.
Also here in Germany the government has high approval for it's measures of 90%
Personally I'm content with the govt response in Germany. Not happy. I'm unsure how much buildup was happening in Jan/Feb, very little reporting on that. (I.e. what were we doing then to prepare? Increasing production? I don't know.)
What I do know is that initially I felt the govt was underreacting. No school closures, no early travel quarantines. Cancelling mass events was way too late. Right now I again lack the info needed to judge the response. Is that 8% growth we're seeing the new norm? How do infections happen currently and what can we do about that?
I personally feel he is getting a lot of bad press overseas more than in the uk, I feel other countries media have decided he is the one to blame for some reason.
His "herd immunity" talks got a lot of press, it was a pretty unique response and there were even comments that the UK "might be onto something", basically making the world look at them as a country-sized experiment. But that lasted about a week and now is basically just viewed as lost time that was wasted. Generally, I think countries are pretty busy with their own measures.
Most EU countries were slamming the breaks, hard, and then had to watch the UK be all ladi da about this.
This might not seem much, but back then days mattered on how this plays out.
Absolutely. A single day earlier of slamming on the brakes gives you about 4 days more room later. (Germany:40%/d vs 8%/d growth before/after. One day of 40% growth costs as much as 4-5 at 8%)
Well, herd immunity is best contemplated if you don't consider yourself a member of the common herd. I expect it's come as quite a shock to the Prime Minister that where viruses are concerned, some animals are not more equal than others.
and on top of this, the whole thing is shrouded in his trademark mis-information and iterative re-writing of history in an attempt to ensure no one sees the bigger picture of his and their mis-steps.
I'd accept and understand mistakes and course-corrections - hell, I'd welcome evidence-based correction to policy and direction back into politics with open arms - but it's the lack of humility and the disingenuous pretence that that mistakes were never made that I find most frustrating.