Boris Johnson has tested positive for Coronavirus

So the rest of us are not 'equal' because we have never ... made decisions that change the world . Are you sure about that Chestnut because you appear to be but is it a true and accurate fact? I ask this question not with the PM in mind or his role etc or but purely to the assertion you have made.

Whoever is the PM regardless, should be tested, end of!
Also those close to him in the Cabinet too, so that they can carry on making decisions.
You wouldn’t think that we have a national emergency going on , by reading all the carping sour posts on here.

And now Chris Whitty is self isolating with symptoms. On BBC News, Sophie Raworth kept referring to him as the ‘chief scientific advisor’, I thought he was the ‘chief medical officer/advisor’.
Nit picking, but there is a difference.

I’ve just read that Lloyd George had Spanish Flu in the outbreak in 1918. He was hidden away to recover partly because they didn’t want Germany to sense a weakness in the closing stages of WW1.

In those days, it was much easier to keep the lid on such things, it just couldn’t be done nowadays.

lemongrove It's the people who are being complacent and think they can somehow get round the rules who don't seem to think there's a national emergency. If wanting rules enforced with no exception is being sour, I'll carry on being sour.

I'm not sure what point you're making SueDonim. 228,000 people in the UK died from Spanish Flu, at a time when the population was much smaller. For some reason, it affected more younger people. If people don't get their act together, Covid-19 will kill a greater number.

Others who survived Spanish Flu were President Woodrow Wilson, Mahatma Gandhi, Greta Garbo, the painter Edvard Munch and Kaiser Willhelm II of Germany, but it doesn't change the fact that approximately 50 million worldwide died.

And what about frontline staff who are treating those with the virus lemon - should they be tested too and given the correct PPE? People like my sister for example - a senior nurse of 25 years experience who is now off work and not making important decisions because she was exposed to the virus. No testing or PPE for her or her colleagues.

SueDonim was just making an interesting observation growstuff....if you don’t ‘get it’ many of us do.

Yes SirC....along with a close family member we have, who is also a nurse, as soon as there are more testing kits available.

Shocking isn’t it lemon. Imagine exposing frontline staff that we need to make important decisions about people’s health to that sort of danger.

It would be shocking if there were thousands and thousands of testing kits available and they were being withheld from NHS on purpose ...... but that isn’t the case.
I hope that they will be ready as soon as possible to test medical staff so that they can return to work safely.

I doubt even the Tories would do that lemon - what an odd thing to say.

Don’t forget the PPE that hasn’t been forthcoming. The only protective clothing my sister had was an apron and a couple of masks she had to wear to treat multiple patients in the community.

Thank you, Lemongrove. You’re quite right, I was merely commenting that it was something I found interesting.

Each hospital is different... the nurse in our family has full protective gear, she says it’s horrible and hot to wear, but needs must etc.

SueD

That’s in the HDU or ICU where they’re treating confined cases - nurses and medical staff on other wards and in the community don’t have protective equipment lemon but they’re being exposed to patients who have the virus but who haven’t been tested and confirmed - that’s how my sister contracted it.

Confirmed cases

Re Johnson, Matt Hancock and that nice man on the TV adverts, it’s impossible to say their attack will remain ‘mild’. Only after 4-5 days apparently, will it become clear if they will improve or deteriorate.

I'm rather concerned for the Speaker who was in close proximity with all of them the other day and is high risk. In fact I mentioned it to my partner at the time. I'd imagine that's why Theresa May wasn't on the benches the other day either....

growstuff off thread but you may be interested to know the reason Spanish Flu affected younger people disproportionately was because it sent the immune system into overdrive, which then attacked the person. The young, with their more efficient immune systems suffered a greater "overdrive" than the older people's less efficient systems.

janipat Yes, I read that too. There's also a theory that some older people might have developed an immunity as a result of a previous similar virus. The reason it was known as Spanish flu was because Spain had been a neutral country in WW1 and its journalists were free to report the infections, which had been occurring throughout much of Europe. The mobility of troops during the war and the conditions in which they lived probably contributed too. There are people researching Spanish Flu because its DNA still exists in the wild.

I actually disagree that we've been getting the full picture about Covid-19. The Chinese government tried to suppress the initial rumours, but the UK government wasn't much better with all Johnson's stirring "take it on the chin" rhetoric and boasting that he'd shaken hands with sufferers. I'm not the slightest bit surprised he's been infected because he certainly wasn't carrying out social distancing until very recently. We don't actually know his symptoms now. The public is only told what the Number 10 press office chooses to tell us.

Initially, the public was fed the half-baked herd immunity line until there was some kind of damascene conversion and the government realised it had better actually do something.

vampirequeen Are you saying that some of us are not as deserving as others? Some are 'better' than others? Where do you draw the line? Kings and queens get the job through an accident of birth? What makes them 'better'? Politicians choose to stand for election? What makes them better?
You are making this up as you go vampirequeen. ??
I never said these people are more deserving or better than others
I said that all men are not 'equal' which is very different.

Yes, the 'Spanish flu' did not originate in Spain but probably in China.

Labaik It wouldn't surprise me if most of the MPs who have been in the HoP recently are infected.

Callistemon France and Britain have also been suggested as source countries. The first reported case was in Kansas, USA.