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Coronavirus

The penny has dropped

(74 Posts)
Whitewavemark2 Sat 09-May-20 07:55:01

2 months after lockdown, with the highest death count in Europe the government suddenly decides to test people coming into the U.K. from abroad.

Does anything this government do make sense?

Grannynannywanny Sat 09-May-20 22:45:33

We have to wait months for more accurate worldwide figures. Maybe not for a year or more.

I did hear pretty much that said by Professor Yvonne Doyle at the Downing St briefing in recent days.

Razzy Sat 09-May-20 23:06:35

Someone asked why the quarantine is a problem for airlines. Well people won’t want to go on holiday or visit relatives for a couple of weeks as they’d have to spend the whole time in quarantine!

Airlines are on their knees. They make money in summer - will be a loss this summer season, a loss in winter and maybe start to pick up for summer 21. Airlines are still paying £100s of thousands of pounds per month to lease and park aircraft. There will be many more airlines going bust if we have the quarantine for any length of time. The air industry is huge and there are going to be a massive number out of work.

maddyone Sat 09-May-20 23:32:31

PamelaJ1
Just because you did the right thing, gives you absolutely no justification for assuming that others did the same. Are you actually defending the fact that our country didn’t ensure that travellers went into quarantine? Can you please provide evidence that the other eighteen million people aswell as yourselves went into voluntary quarantine?

I’m minded to wonder just why you were out of the country in the middle of a pandemic, and hadn’t made sure you were at home in Britain like the rest of us. If you were visiting family, perhaps you would have done well to stay with them, and if you were on holiday, well, I’m speechless.

maddyone Sat 09-May-20 23:35:02

Incidentally Maizie’s post at 22.19 is almost certainly correct in its assessment that the true total of deaths in the UK is probably nearer to forty thousand people.

maddyone Sat 09-May-20 23:36:45

Razzy
Are a few more deaths okay then so long as people can go on holiday for a couple of weeks or visit their families for a week?

MayBee70 Sat 09-May-20 23:37:05

Even if you self quarantine you still come into contact with people on the journey home.

maddyone Sat 09-May-20 23:38:09

I’d like to visit my family and they’re only ten minutes car ride away, but I can’t, like all the other grans on here who are respecting the rules.

maddyone Sat 09-May-20 23:39:08

So that’s a good reason not to is it Maybee?

lilypollen Sat 09-May-20 23:44:55

Total reliance on the so called Government approved Scientists has proved a foolish strategy. Neil Ferguson and his theories had been discredited previously and scientists at Oxford Uni proposed other strategies several weeks ago. In this day and age Common Sense has gone out of the window and perhaps Boris et al should have gone in that direction.
As a mum I used my gut instinct with regard to welfare of my 2 DS.

MayBee70 Sat 09-May-20 23:56:18

maddyone; That's why people should be quarantined in hotels near to where they land. It's what other countries do.

growstuff Sat 09-May-20 23:58:03

When had Neil Ferguson been discredited? Sound like you're jumping on the anti-Professor Lockdown bandwagon.

I'd rather follow properly researched advice than your common sense.

PS. I have two children too, but I don't see how that qualifies me to know what to do in a pandemic. hmm

MayBee70 Sat 09-May-20 23:58:47

I think the scientists are actually getting rather angry at being misinterpreted by the government as they're obviously being lined up to take the blame.

growstuff Sun 10-May-20 00:03:32

I think you're right MayBee. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who will fall for it too. angry

It's ironic how people have changed their tune. This time last year, they were claiming that the economy didn't matter, as long as they had their blue passports and bent bananas. These days, they're full of crocodile tears for the economy and airlines.

maddyone Sun 10-May-20 00:59:06

Well I guess that would be okay Maybee except wouldn’t people still come into contact with other people in a hotel? There are a lot of staff working in hotels, from check in to room service. Obviously for foreign people a hotel would have to be used, but I’d have thought quarantining in their own home would bring Brits into contact with fewer people.

MayBee70 Sun 10-May-20 02:00:18

No: from what I’ve read they stay in their room and food is left outside their door. No one even collects the dishes until the 14 days is up. Need to work out which country/countries I’m talking about. Read so much at the moment I lose track of what I’ve read and where I’ve read it.

Eloethan Sun 10-May-20 02:01:47

oscaroll and EMMF1948. It seems you have seized with relish the opportunity to claim the reason nobody was quarantined was due to human rights "bleaters" and the fear that the government would be accused of racism. I would suggest that it had nothing whatsoever to do with that. It would certainly be racist if only certain ethnic groups were placed in quarantine but I don't think that has ever been suggested.

I am actually all for human rights but I don't see the introduction of a quarantine system during a pandemic as an abuse of those rights. In any event, I read that a large number of the people coming to Britain are British returners and presumably a fair percentage of them are white.

MayBee70 Sun 10-May-20 02:10:09

I didn’t watch today’s propaganda broadcast but I did hear something about how potholes were going to be repaired now that people were being encouraged to cycle to work. Why now? I’ve been saying for weeks that it was an ideal time to fill every pot hole as there were so few cars on the road.

vegansrock Sun 10-May-20 03:54:42

It’s ironic that the main reason for Brexit was to “ control our borders”, yet a Brexitty government has been unwilling to do just that. Unlike countries still in the EU which did close their borders early on.

Kandinsky Sun 10-May-20 10:45:10

They could keep us looked up forever, but if they allow people from other countries to just swan in off a plane what’s the bleedin’ point?
They should have closed our borders 2 months ago like other countries did.
Would have saved 1000’s of lives & I’m damn sure if it angry

maddyone Sun 10-May-20 12:04:01

And I’m damn sure you’re right Kandinsky.

sodapop Sun 10-May-20 12:54:17

It's not just airlines either is it. There are ferries and Eurostar to think about as well.

PamelaJ1 Sun 10-May-20 15:44:24

Maddyone, no I am certainly not suggesting that the Government were right not to insist on quarantine for everyone. I’m my opinion it would have been a good move.

I was trying to reassure you that not all of the 18 mill. returners didn’t realise that it would be a good thing to stay at home.

You are minded to know why I wasn’t in the U.K. when this started? Well that would be because I was visiting my DD in Australia and we went before Covid 19 was an issue.
Do you have. A problem with that? If you do then get over it!

maddyone Sun 10-May-20 22:57:14

PamelaJ1
No I don’t have a problem with that. Many people went on holiday even as things took a turn for the worse. It’s my belief that people who went on holiday, often on holiday in Europe, but not always, were extremely irresponsible.