UK Government handling of coronavirus

[UKBengali]

Hi Guys,

I would like opinions on some of the people living in the UK how they feel the UK government is handling this crisis.

From my perspective:

1. Up to Early March - Awful as they did not take it seriously and seems to have made little preparations for it even when they saw what was happening in other countries.

2. March 24th(start of lockdown) to Wednesday 13th May this week when lockdown started being eased - On the whole pretty good as they gave the public a clear message, built up NHS capacity and also protected the economy and livelihoods as much as possible.

3. Current time - Worrying as some of the public are now being forced to go to work when even the government's 5 tests have not been met, like testing capacity and tracing not yet being ready. Also the number of daily infections at around 4000 is far higher than comparable countries like France. It seems that the government is gambling with lives in order to save the economy and hopes it pays off. They should have waited 2/3 more weeks.

@waz
@Indus Pakistan
@313ghazi
@mike2000 is back - not sure whether you post anymore but just in case.

 

[313ghazi]

Hi Guys,

I would like opinions on some of the people living in the UK how they feel the UK government is handling this crisis.

From my perspective:

1. Up to Early March - Awful as they did not take it seriously and seems to have made little preparations for it even when they saw what was happening in other countries.

2. March 24th(start of lockdown) to Wednesday 13th May this week when lockdown started being eased - On the whole pretty good as they gave the public a clear message, built up NHS capacity and also protected the economy and livelihoods as much as possible.

3. Current time - Worrying as some of the public are now being forced to go to work when even the government's 5 tests have not been met, like testing capacity and tracing not yet being ready. Also the number of daily infections at around 4000 is far higher than comparable countries like France. It seems that the government is gambling with lives in order to save the economy and hopes it pays off. They should have waited 2/3 more weeks.

@waz
@Indus Pakistan
@313ghazi
@mike2000 is back - not sure whether you post anymore but just in case.

I am/was a labour supporter (bit lost politically atm) so will have some bias, but honestly i'm not happy. We didn't lock down hard enough or fast enough, we don't have enough testing, we don't utilise tech to control the virus, govt has been hiding figures of deaths and now they're panicing about the cost of lockdown and are trying to force people back into work.

Some stuff makes sense, like construction, agriculture, jobs which are in large open spaces. Other jobs like retail too, but there is no enforcement of lockdown rules, no obligation to wear masks/gloves. I was in B&Q this lunch time buying a flexi waste for a toilet - i noticed OAP's browing paint! I wore gloves and a mask, but i was a minority. Most people are just too casual.

Things like schools don't make sense. I see no reason why classes can't be online with teachers doing live streams or sending videos. I guess not all children have access to a device with internet, so maybe not. Either way though - 30 kids in a class - that's gonna spread some corona.

 

[UKBengali]

I am/was a labour supporter (bit lost politically atm) so will have some bias, but honestly i'm not happy. We didn't lock down hard enough or fast enough, we don't have enough testing, we don't utilise tech to control the virus, govt has been hiding figures of deaths and now they're panicing about the cost of lockdown and are trying to force people back into work.

Some stuff makes sense, like construction, agriculture, jobs which are in large open spaces. Other jobs like retail too, but there is no enforcement of lockdown rules, no obligation to wear masks/gloves. I was in B&Q this lunch time buying a flexi waste for a toilet - i noticed OAP's browing paint! I wore gloves and a mask, but i was a minority. Most people are just too casual.

Things like schools don't make sense. I see no reason why classes can't be online with teachers doing live streams or sending videos. I guess not all children have access to a device with internet, so maybe not. Either way though - 30 kids in a class - that's gonna spread some corona.

I am not particularly too worried about schools as there will only be a phased reopening from June and it will be the youngest children(with youngest parents) that will be put at risk from then. The likelihood is that class sizes will only be half of normal to allow social distancing but how will you make nursery age children to socially distance?!
Of course schools will need to make their own judgements as to which members of staff they put at risk and hopefully with common sense anyone that is judged not to be fit and healthy is not asked to go back into school to teach these children.
It will give school leaders some valuable information on how best to create a socially distanced environment before the long summer holidays start at the end of July and so in some ways is an ideal time to begin the phased reopening of schools for the younger and some selected older children.

What I am not happy about is the lack of transparency from the government on the reasons they have relaxed the lockdown for example that affects London far more than other areas due to the widespread need to use public transport. That sight of dozens of people packed into each London bus was not good on Wednesday. Surely at least some of these people travelling on the buses will have had corona virus and the bus journey in the cramped confines was an ideal way to pass it into other people. These newly infected workers will then surely infect at least some members of their household and maybe some of their colleagues, who will in turn infect some members of their household.

That report about the rate of R in London being only 0.4 seems like a UK government plant to me. They have been saying for so long that it is impossible to work out the R value so accurately and when the government is being attacked by nearly everyone for forcing workers back too early and without adequate preparations in place, all of a sudden they come up with R values for the whole of England that are precise to 2 decimal places and show London not only having a R value of 0.4 but also only 24 infections. a day!

Now how on earth would they know that London has only 24 infections? Is that the number of people in London being tested positive now and so out of around 3500 people being tested positive in the UK now every day, only 24 are being detected in London? If that is the case please say so but the government has been saying all along that we need to multiply by 10 to the positive cases to get the true number of infections.

It seems to me that they have a timetable and will fudge/make up the science to suit their timetable of opening up the economy and the only thing that will stop them is a surge of new infections and then deaths down the line. We all know it takes up to 2 weeks for people to show symptoms and then get tested and so the government is literally gambling with thousands of lives now.

Estimates from reputable sources place the number of UK deaths from coronavirus at 60,000 now for a country of only 67 million.

Let us all hope for the sake of the UK that the gamble pays off and does not lead to another surge in cases and deaths.

 

[313ghazi]

I am not particularly too worried about schools as there will only be a phased reopening from June and it will be the youngest children(with youngest parents) that will be put at risk from then. The likelihood is that class sizes will only be half of normal to allow social distancing but how will you make nursery age children to socially distance?!
Of course schools will need to make their own judgements as to which members of staff they put at risk and hopefully with common sense anyone that is not judged to be fit and healthy is asked to go back into school to teach these children.
It will give school leaders some valuable information on how best to create a socially distanced environment before the long summer holidays start at the end of July and so in some ways is an ideal time to begin the phased reopening of schools for the younger and some selected older children.

What I am not happy about is the lack of transparency from the government on the reasons they have relaxed the lockdown for example that affects London far more than other areas due to the widespread need to use public transport. That sight of dozens of people packed into each London bus was not good on Wednesday. Surely at least some of these people travelling on the buses will have had corona virus and the bus journey in the cramped confines was an ideal way to pass it into other people. These newly infected workers will then surely infect at least some members of their household and maybe some of their colleagues, who will in turn infect some members of their household.

That report about the rate of R in London being only 0.4 seems like a UK government plant to me. They have been saying for so long that it is impossible to work out the R value so accurately and when the government is being attacked by nearly everyone for forcing workers back too early and without adequate preparations in place, all of a sudden they come up with R values for the whole of England that are precise to 2 decimal places and show London not only having a R value of 0.4 but also only 24 infections. a day!

Now how on earth would they know that London has only 24 infections? Is that the number of people in London being tested positive now and so out of around 3500 people being tested positive in the UK now every day, only 24 are being detected in London? If that is the case please say so but the government has been saying all along that we need to multiply by 10 to the positive cases to get the true number of infections.

It seems to me that they have a timetable and will fudge/make up the science to suit their timetable of opening up the economy and the only thing that will stop them is a surge of new infections and then deaths down the line. We all know it takes up to 2 weeks for people to show symptoms and then get tested and so the government is literally gambling with thousands of lives now.

Estimates from reputable sources place the number of UK deaths from coronavirus at 60,000 now for a country of only 67 million.

Let us all hope for the sake of the UK that the gamble pays off and does not lead to another surge in cases and deaths.

It hit our small community hard. We must have had 25-30 deaths of people who are Pakistani and live within 2 miles of me.

I hope people take precautions. It seems those with masks and gloves are a minority - some even ignore social distancing.

A brother was in sainsburys a few weeks ago with his wife and 4 kids. Flipping family outing in the vegetable aisle. Madness!

Kids running around touching things, no PPE.

 

[UKBengali]

It hit our small community hard. We must have had 25-30 deaths of people who are Pakistani and live within 2 miles of me.

I hope people take precautions. It seems those with masks and gloves are a minority - some even ignore social distancing.

A brother was in sainsburys a few weeks ago with his wife and 4 kids. Flipping family outing in the vegetable aisle. Madness!

Kids running around touching things, no PPE.

I went to the supermarket in Tuesday as part of my once a week shopping and saw so many people touching food they did not take, despite clear advice being displayed to touch only what you buy.

This "common sense" that Boris talks about is not as prevalent as he seems to think it is.

Yes, my community has also been hit hard and so we all are aware how deadly this virus is.