Still impressed by BJ?

Well there's a surprise Grany.

Johnson looks more like a bemused bystander than a reassuring leader. quote Keven Magure

Just seen the South Korean foreign minister on Andrew Marr. She was so brilliant, calm and reasoned. They are very much in control, testing everyone and reducing the numbers of cases. Why can't Europe be so efficient? The South Koreans have really impressed me.

Just to add, as far as I can see, if we found some medication that worked to help we would immediately need fewer ventilators.

Perhaps because the world and his dog are trying to protect itself the world over!!!

Supply and demand!

All countries are concerned about ventilators. There has never been a need for them on this level.

What I think is baffling is why its taken until now for the concern about ventilators coming into play. Why were they not on order weeks ago? The budget announcements made it clear that the government is prepared to spend so the money can be found from somewhere.

Shouldn't a national emergency bring out the best in people not the worst, and apportioning blame is unhelpful?

So let me get this straight - the reason we have so few ventilators is because we’ve let too many foreigners into the UKand we’ve given away too much money to foreign countries.

What a fascinating theory. Can you run it past us one more time just for the lolz?

Ah , thinly veiled racism comes into play. What a surprise.

quizqueen well maybe we’ll have far fewer people after the virus because of our lack of ventilators, by your logic that will be a good thing. Italy has about the same numbers in the population as us, but twice as many ventilators, and they are struggling. This suggests we have too few .

We must soon get to the stage where schools and nurseries are closed, but should still provide a skeleton childminding service for parents who work in the NHS, police or other essential services.

Much education can, these days, be done online and most children can access online services. Help must be offered to those who can't.

It's not that we have too few beds/ventilators etc. It's that we have too many people living here who may need to use them. Ngaiol is correct; we have given away too much money to other countries instead of building up our own resources. Don't complain now when most of you voted for this. Thank goodness it's not Jeremy in charge.

I absolutely agree that schools should not close. Children may be neglected and the economy will suffer even more than it clearly is already. Who will deliver food and provide medical care and other essential services if the parents aren't at work?

14 more have now died.

Come to think of it - where is Johnson??

Trouble is if they close the schools grannies will have to childmind or parents will have to stay off work.

Lesser talked about is that children from poor families won’t get free school at midday and will go hungry. There’s plenty of them out there through no fault of their own. Current thinking is that children are less at risk at school, e.g. not running the streets getting into trouble from whoever, not being abused, by whoever and not going hungry and learning 3 Rs that might one day help them out of poverty. It’s sad but true. Those of us lucky enough to have roof over head, warm clothes and shoes, and warm food in the kitchen when we feel like it and loving friends and family can thank our lucky stars. Some don’t.

You mean you’re not a Tory voter Oopsminty? You surprise me - your many posts on here give the distinct impression that you’re right wing. Are you to the right of Tory perhaps?

I have already read that article which provides a critical analysis of the UK Govt’s approach and I stand by my earlier posts re the WHO and many other experts.

Thank you for posting that Daisymae, I read it a couple of days ago. This is one of "the people" perhaps Cunco is alluding to. He is Dr William Hanage, professor of evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease at Harvard.
Some may not read it as it is in the "dreaded Guardian" but I will quote some points he makes.

The UK should not be trying to create a 'herd immunity' that will take care of itself. Policy should be directed at slowing the outbreak to a (more) manageable rate.

We talk about vaccine generating herd immunity..........this is not a vaccine. This is an actual pandemic that will make a very large number of people sick and some of them will die.

It's worth reading the whole article, he and his colleagues thought our government's policy was satire at first!!

but no, the Tories on here complain it’s nothing more than a dig at Boris.

Who said I was a Tory?

Nobody knows what's going to work. Nobody.

This is quite a good article if you can manage to read something that questions your line of thought

edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/uk/uk-coronavirus-response-boris-johnson-intl-gbr/index.html

There is no simple answer to this. None at all.

If we hadn't spent so much on foreign aid and remembered that "Charity begins at home" we could have had so many critical and intensive care places. Maybe this awful plague will bring people to their senses.

Just out of interest, I used the facility on the coronavirus section of the BBC website to see how many COVID-19 cases had been identified in my borough. There were 5. Westminster had 24; Surrey 15; Suffolk 1; and Norfolk 0. In the UK, there were 1,372 out of over 40,000 tested.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

These numbers will undoubtedly rise but, even so, it might make it difficult to enforce tough national measures across the UK just now.

Perhaps someone will soon suggest sealing off the border between Westminster and surrounding boroughs! There is a certain irony that, within the EU, the response in a growing number of countries is to close their borders.

The guy who wrote that article is Dr William Hanage a professor of the evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease at Harvard. I have a feeling he knows what he is talking about

The WHO doesn’t agree that the herd immunity approach is the best one and nearly 250 experts have gone on record to express significant concerns - but no, the Tories on here complain it’s nothing more than a dig at Boris.

There are plenty of experts who believe this way is the best way

Tiresome how this is being politicised

One would think Boris was sat there ignoring all advice

He's not