Covid

I think it will be far worse because people have forgotten how many people died at the start of the pandemic ( including health workers) and they will refuse to go into any sort of lockdown.

Surprise, surprise, Johnson didn't know what he was doing and showed no leadership. Who'd have thought it?

No one knew what they were doing because we'd never been faced with anything like it before.

Easy to criticise with the curse benefit of hindsight.

I agree with Smileless.
Am no fan of Johnson, he made many mistakes during his time as PM, but the Covid pandemic was not something that any government dealt particularly well with.
It was just not something anyone had any knowledge of. Looking back it still feels unreal and if it ever happens again I doubt governments will deal with it any better looking at how most governments conduct themselves during any crisis occurring today.

Governments have a responsibility to have plans in place for such events. There have been flu pandemics in the past after all. The report states that the Department of Health said they were prepared for a pandemic and Johnson did not display leadership.

This is about more than hindsight, it is about a government that was too busy infighting and not concentrating on the problem in hand.

Smileless2012

No one knew what they were doing because we'd never been faced with anything like it before.

Easy to criticise with the curse benefit of hindsight.

Weren't we faced with something similar about 100 years earlier? Nothing much seemed to be learned from it and I think the death toll might have been higher but I'm not sure about that.

I don’t think that can excuse all the major misspent money that went in some pockets on crxp hospital equipment etc or the parties while others got fined for walking out their door to a nearby park …..

Just googled it and the death toll of the 1918-1929 flu pandemic was 50 million and higher than the COVID toll. Bearing in mind that was when the population of the world was much lower.

So yes we had a precedent and should have acted faster.

I and my family were personally affected by the Covid pandemic and its aftermath. I don't think we will ever really get over it and my grandchildren will have to deal with the fall-out for the rest of their lives.

For me and many others it can never be trivialised, or excused.

I think we all know of people that suffered greatly because of the pandemic and people who died that shouldn’t have. I’m glad that me and my family did everything possible to not catch covid or pass it on to other people ( and that was before we were told to). And people forget how frightening it was before we had a vaccine followed by the disappointment that the vaccine did not give long term protection. I haven’t read this report but my take on what I’ve heard is that it’s been interpreted as ‘ we didn’t need to have lockdowns’ when what it actually means is that we wouldn’t’ve needed them if the situation had been handled properly. But I’m happy to be corrected on that.

MollyNew

Governments have a responsibility to have plans in place for such events. There have been flu pandemics in the past after all. The report states that the Department of Health said they were prepared for a pandemic and Johnson did not display leadership.

This is about more than hindsight, it is about a government that was too busy infighting and not concentrating on the problem in hand.

Nonsense! Ridiculous to expect Boris to mind read. He deferred to immunogists and did much the same as other countries. Ludicrous to judge purely because of his politics and lifestyle. Corbin has had the same no of marriages and side pieces but that’s swept under the carpet.

I remember when there was an outbreak of polio many years ago. All public places were closed and there was a mass vaccination campaign. Since then, there haven't been any major epidemics, so it's understandable that the government were not sure of the right policy. Viruses are spread by close contact so shutdown seemed the obvious thing to do. They just took it a bit too far.
We will all have learned from this and hopefully take our own precautions in future.

And then you had our government where I live who locked us up for 2 years . We were allowed only 5 km from our homes for essential shopping and they checked up on us. Scary. The other extreme and we are still paying the price with psychological problems with our young ones. We had helicopters going overhead checking that no one was going out. They lost me at that stage …

We let flights in and out for ages which should have stopped much earlier. UK was much harder hit than most other places - surely in such an emergency situation party politics should have been replaced by a government of national unity. Johnson was hopeless in this situation - focussed on his divorce and Brexit.

Our lockdown in France started a week earlier, Spain was a few days before us. The lockdown was strictly enforced and the rules were very clear throughout the pandemic. The children were back in schools as early as possible, because it was understood how damaging the loss of education would be.
It is clear from the report that delays were caused by Johnson's style of government and the culture in No. 10.

Smileless2012

No one knew what they were doing because we'd never been faced with anything like it before.

Easy to criticise with the curse benefit of hindsight.

Who would have done better, do you think?

Keir, Corbin, Farage….?

If Margaret Thatcher had been PM, there wouldn’t have been the parties etc, I’m sure, but as for lockdowns and so on, I don’t know.

I think many of us have forgotten just how scary it all was, before the vaccinations came out.

And now there are so many saying they don’t bother with them now.

They would probably be first in the queue for them if something similar happened again.

Boris Johnson was said to be absent from 5 consecutive emergency COBRA meetings at the very start of Covid. Maybe he had something more important to do........

Yes Boris Johnson was also embroiled in his personal life at that time. My recollection is that Johnson wasn’t taking the early warnings very seriously. He simply didn’t believe that a pandemic was on the way.

I was against lockdowns for all, especially the schools.

I am/was immunocompromised, I was worried, but my health is and was my responsibility.

We lost two close friends, both had underlying health conditions.

The western world is now reaping what it sowed, hence the rise of mental health issues with our young people.

The financial support given to keep businesses afloat and citizens with food on their tables and a roof over their heads was invaluable.

Could shutting down earlier made saved 23,000 lives, according to computer modelling yes, but we will never know.

The establishment are all ready spouting the phrase that really annoys me lessons will be learned 🤬🤬🤬

I've always felt the delay in Feb/March 2020 was the big fault. The big events going ahead when it was clear they were going to be super spreaders. Then the eat out to help out, what madness was that. I live in a seaside town in Devon, we really did well till then, loads of holiday makers/day trippers in crowded restaurants and suddenly in September numbers rocketed.

Thousands of people died 'with Covid' not from it. A huge difference!

love0c

Thousands of people died 'with Covid' not from it. A huge difference!

And thousands died of COVID.

IMO and I’m still entitled to that, the only PM who would have done better was Margaret Thatcher.
But that’s as impossible to prove as the number of lives that would have been saved.
What we should all have done is wear a lanyard. Lanyards protected people didn’t they?

Mollygo

IMO and I’m still entitled to that, the only PM who would have done better was Margaret Thatcher.
But that’s as impossible to prove as the number of lives that would have been saved.
What we should all have done is wear a lanyard. Lanyards protected people didn’t they?

Don’t get me started on masks.

Homemade fabric ones especially, normally worn under the nose 🤬🤬🤬