Government is lying about lack of availability of CV testing chemicals

Paddyanne
Herd immunity is the only way to overcome any virus. Until an effective CV-19 vaccination is developed to enable total herd immunity (unless the anti vaxxers still exist), the virus will make its way through the population like a bush fire. Most will get it at some stage, the lock down can only slow its progression not stop it. At some stage we will reach a point where more people have had the virus and recovered than have not and those who have recovered are the start of the building of herd immunity. It is hoped that by that stage the vaccination will have been developed so those who have avoided the infection through isolation can be vaccinated to complete the herd immunity.
As it is anticipated there will be no vaccine for a year, lock down will be slowly eased, this means that the virus will still infect but at a controlled rate.
Sadly it is not known who will get the virus lightly or who will succumb to a fatal dose.

I haven't commented on this issue because I haven't in fact researched it paddyanne.

As for the pro-China rhetoric, it has been evident on many threads.

Being neither a Conservative or Labour voter, I'm very disappointed with how the pandemic has been managed so far.

The government have dragged their feet, ignored WHO advice and been found lacking in providing a prompt and logical response.

We've had emergency planning for decades. We knew it would be coming. We are the fifth richest country in the world. Still - we were unprepared. It's utterly unforgiveable!

Hetty58
I too am a-political, I try to look at issues with impartiality.
What has struck me is that people forget that this cabinet has only been in place since the General election in December, most ministers were new in post then and some ministers have been in post less than this i.e. Rishi Sunak. No employee would be expected to be fully conversant with a normal job in such a short space of time never mind learn what is required in the normal scope of the job then be hit with dealing with this epidemic disaster. Yes, most countries do have disaster policies and processes in place, but if you are new into a job apart from a quick run through at induction, how well would you be prepared.
I think everyone in this government is probably working their socks off to try and get things right. It is an absolutely mammoth task yet everyone expects everything to have been done yesterday.
All I see is criticism and people being called liars. The journalist (Robert Peston), who called Michael Gove a liar yesterday has today put a PPS at the bottom of his article stating that ‘well yes, actually there is a global shortage of reagent’. No retraction, no apology so to most still think its true.
Based on the global progress of this virus and reports from other countries we are doing okay. However instead of saying this, the media always seems to try and portray us doing worse than other places like Germany etc. When its like comparing oranges with grapefruits.

Michael Gove lied. The chemical industry has stated that he didn't even ask and there is no national shortage.

Gove has form. I don't trust a word he says.

Why is comparing the UK with Germany like comparing oranges and grapefruits? There are some in the UK who really need to wake up to the fact that some countries do things better.

Joelsnan It is the civil service who are doing all the really hard work - as ever. They really do have people who know what they're talking about and know how to organise things. It's a shame that Cummings & Co decided to wage war on them.

Germany has a health service which is predominantly privately funded by insurance and “top-ups” as is most of Europe.

We are not comparing like for like look at all the calls for help from Italian and Spanish Health Care Providers, Portugal has the least ratio of ICU beds/ventilators per capita in Southern Europe.
Time to stop looking for the negative in everything, when this is over then there will be discussions, now we need to do the best we can.

Hmmm, apparently Justin O’Grady from Quadram has confirmed there is a shortage. And the originator of the claim, Robert Oreston has back tracked.

So who was it that lied?

But that’s not as sensational as the original journalistic article so I don’t suppose many people will hear about it.

Preston

I can’t understand why the government continuously lies. They invariably get found out

twitter.com/JenniferMerode/status/1244705014834233345

Germany's health service is actually not that different from the NHS. It's compulsory for nearly all employees to pay into one of a number of "Krankenkassen", which are quasi-independent health providers. The big difference is that Germans pay more. The UK health service is also funded by "top ups" from people who choose private care and other services not provided by the NHS.

I'm not looking for the negative in everything, but I won't accept the arguments of people who won't question anything the UK does.

Do you have a link to that please Eglantine?

We must be critical? where we see problems/issues.

We aren’t China or Russia

Notanan and Joelsnan good posts.??

It appears that some people want everything done not only perfectly but right this second, and if it doesn’t happen start shrieking about ‘government lies’......quite ridiculous.
And as for China! The least said the better.

Robert Peston is a self publicising idiot.

In 2001, the newly formed Civil Contingencies Secretariat took over emergency planning/response from the Home office. There's been so much time since to prepare.

The Coronavirus Act is based upon the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 - that's 16 years ago.

Just when we so desperately need the services of the NHS and police force, we are in a situation where they have been systematically underfunded and shrunk for decades.

Had anyone been watching the extended news coverage on Sky that’s just been on which showed the extrapolated figures? We’re actually now on track to overtake Italy. It was incredibly sobering viewing

Umm, don’t know how to do links but it’s there in his twitter feed.

And as Joelsnan said above, Robert Preston added a PPS to his article

Does it matter? It’s all just words. We are where we are for reasons we’ll all disagree on. The stark fact is that we are on course for an absolute disaster of nightmare proportions from those extrapolated figures based on all the available data. Just hope and pray and whatever else you do that they are wrong on this occasion.

As far as I'm concerned China is responsible for this because they didn't close their borders as soon as they realised there was a new virus on the loose.

This is such a false argument to me. You want to blame China for not closing their borders, but why not blame every other country for not closing theirs? Every other country left theirs open.

It’s not as simple to just blame one country.

We all need to own our parts in this.

Including those going out and living life because “we aren’t on lockdown yet”.

Trying to make a cheap policitical point when thousands are losing their lives and others seriously ill, is really beyond the pail. Everyone is working to find a solution and. working their socks off. I don't know where or when you qualified as a scientist or doctor Garajo, but the country needs unity not division, trust the scientists and advisors, they are dealing with something never known in our lifetime, yet you know the answers, it's not Brexit. It's Life or death. Tests have to be right or they are pointless what bit of that don't you get.

So those applauding the people barking at the gov "MORE TESTS NOW" and defending it on the basis that it'll get things speeded up:

You know that speeding it up means relaxing safety processes right?
You know that missdiagnosis could be fatal?
A false positive for CV means that you might not be tested for other things which have more treatment options, which means you wont get those treatments, potentially dying unecessarily as a result?

A false positive may mean dying without your loved ones etc

CV19 has less treatment options than things like flu.

A false negative can also have fatal consequences.

So shhh the PEOPLE ARE DYING USE IT ALL NOW and think

Censorship? Seriously?

Our government are putting lives at risk and your answer is to tell people to shut up?

The country doesn't need unity if it's being led by an incompetent government.