I’m delighted Boris is back!

FarNorth… I see that Pessimist from Preston [as well as delighted from Dorking] has also posted a few times, so it evens it out.

If you wish to blame someone, blame the chief medical officer who'd sanctioned the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead even after virus cases had been confirmed.
How many thousand attended that ?
Can't see anyone at Westminster arguing against THE chief medical officer, can you ?

Imagine the backlash Boris would have got if he'd said no !!

Well posted trisher Sirchenjin good points made.

Do you think Boris et al are reading GNs good wishes
In response to OP
I'm delighted he has recovered but not delighted hes back. Im Glad hes reinforcing the lockdown and was taken by surprise that he has done this. But I do like to be surprised

Not to mention the government not cancelling Cheltenham. What sort of message did that send to the British public? What sort of effect did that have when social distancing was finally announced? Interesting that no-one has explained to me how Germany has managed to keep their deaths to such a low number in comparison with ours. Larger population, fewer deaths can only mean it was better managed.

If Boris listened to the chief medical officer in all this, why blame Boris ? We all listen to our GP's don't we ?? Do we ?

perhaps Dominic Cummings trawls the forums and reports back...so maybe Boris does see or hear good wishes on GN.
somebody is always 'listening'.

Because Boris is in charge. Apparently.

As I said, Boris got the Cheltenham go-ahead from the medical officer---it wasn't Boris's decision.

You can read more about the Cheltenham organisers decision to go ahead here www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/08/cheltenham-cited-boris-johnson-twickenham-trip-to-support-festival-go-ahead-horse-racing

But let’s not get too hung up on Cheltenham - the Govt have botched many things in their management of the pandemic in the UK.

Interesting article in yesterday’s Guardian, interview with Germany’s Covid expert Christian Drosten. The whole article is worth reading but here’s what he said when asked about the UK

Q: From where you stand, how is the UK handling the situation?
A: It’s clear that testing was implemented a little bit too late in the UK. Public Health England was in a position to diagnose the disease very early on – we worked with them to make the diagnostic test – but rollout in Germany was driven in part by market forces, which made it fast, and that wasn’t the case in the UK. Now, though, I have the impression that the UK is really gaining momentum in this regard, and that it is coordinating testing efforts better than Germany.

Totally agree EllanVannin. As you say, imagine the outcry if the government had gone against the advice of the C.M.O? I know people on here are determined to use this as a stick to beat the government, but in truth they followed medical advice and cannot be held responsible for that!

And he’s cautious about saying they are out of the woods -

The federal plan is to lift lockdown slightly, but because the German states, or Länder, set their own rules, I fear we’re going to see a lot of creativity in the interpretation of that plan. I worry that the reproduction number will start to climb again, and we will have a second wave.

40,000 deaths not a success
He was told November about getting prepared for the pandemic spreading from China.

Delayed Order PPE Equipment
Test and trace
Lockdown

JAPAN population 120 million (383 deaths)
South Korea population 52 million (243 deaths)
New Zealand population 5 million (18 deaths)
#BORISISBACK and called it a success!

Yes I saw that - as you say, a very interesting article. He also casts doubt on the theory it cane from the Wuhan market “is more likely to have started where the animal – the intermediate host – was bred” or that it passed through pangolins on its way to humans.

Ellan - Ultimately the government have to take responsibility for its decision making. There's never a consensus among the scientific community. Equally it looks like there was input from senior government advisers who sat on SAGE so impartiality must be questioned.

My point is that Germany did what they decided what was best for them, as did those other developed nations, Spain, Italy France etc etc. We also did what we thought best, why should the UK be expected to get it so right, above every other country?

I am not talking about the size of NZ (I do grasp the population differences etc.) but the strategies they employed - all of which could have been done here but weren't.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - which man is this - Johnson or Cummings?

Precisely Glory and look at the differences between the death rates across the world. The Tories botched it.

The fan club is certainly out in force. For once he gave a coherent speech with no Latin tags or references to the ancient Greeks. But, he was only confirming what the majority thought - that it is too early to relax the lockdown. Too early except for the extreme right.Some of whom - Toby Young, Katie Hopkins and James Delingpole - apparently think that we are all wimps and that there was no need for a lockdown.

It sounds awful to say it but we don’t yet have as many deaths as Italy, Spain, France and of course the USA, not that it is a morbid kind of competition, but they are what I would consider comparable countries.

What strategies are those Luckygirl ? Taking into consideration the differences in numbers re. population ?

Not everyone's obeying the rules here as it is. Underground has still been packed to the gunnels----why ??

Actually, the death rates (which is how these things are measured) are lower in America. We have the fifth highest death rate per million in the world www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdUOA?Si

SirChenjin It originated in China, but that’s not the issue
The cause of everything that's happened is exactly the issue.

Glorybee, when the " beast from the East " struck, there were 153,717 deaths recorded between January and March.143,000 had been expected.

Why is this virus any different to the count of deaths during a cold winter and a flu virus ?
Why weren't there daily headlines at the amount of people dying on a daily basis.? As does happen every winter.