Corona Virus

z-layrex · 13 April 2020

11 hours ago, Nod.E said:

The 50,000 number was a direct response to another poster.

While there would have been some impact to the economy if nothing was imposed, but sections of society abstaining, it's a sliding scale and it obviously wouldn't be as catastrophic as what months of lockdown is going to do to the long term futures of millions of people.

I'm just trying to be a realist here.

Even if lockdown measures were kept in place for months on end, I don't trust British people enough to comply to the required level.

Realistically what are our chances of completely isolating and getting rid of the virus? It blew up out of nowhere and it will only take a handful of new cases for it to blow up again.

Just feels like we're delaying the inevitable.

If we lockdown for say, two more months, is that going to stop it flaring up again? Probably not, and all that hardship and impact on the economy will have been for nothing. The idea of being able to test and trace all cases and those that have come into contact with carriers seems absurd to me. There are just too many asymptomatic cases and it is just too contagious for that to work, surely.

Are we really going to delay and lockdown until we have a vaccine or drug in 12-18 months?

I doubt it.

Flattening the curve and spreading the impact may well reduce the total number of deaths but my god what a price we're paying. Especially when you consider the vast majority of those saved lives are highly likely to die within a few years anyway. Cynical? Maybe.

The world has quite literally stopped. What sort of a life are the additional survivors going to have with their extra 5 years when this is all done? Is it worth it?

I just can't shake the idea that the secondary impact to the world as we know it is going to be more destructive and that to me is what it feels like we should be fighting against right now.

Just sick of this. As you said we only have shitty options but at some point we may have to address the reality of the situation and admit defeat. We don't want to cut our nose to spite our face.

I'd still quite like a reply to my previous comment on this post as I found myself quite dumbfounded by it.

What do you think we are doing on the ICU'S, pointlessly flogging the disabled and elderly?

My hospital for example has gone from having 4 intensive care units to 10. Within each of those units we are putting 2 patients in bedspaces designed for 1, its cramped and having enough equipment has been an issue. Suddenly finding enough monitoring, ventilators, infusion pumps, dialysis machines etc, as well as fitting it all into small spaces wasn't easy but they managed it. Add to this the nightnare of drug procurement and the need to provide PPE for this many staff and you can see the logistical undertaking that this really has been.

We've staffed this by having the "experienced" ICU nurses (of which there was a shortage of before the pandemic) oversee the care of 2, 3 or 4 level 3 patients (sedated on a ventilator), with the support of "surge nurses", nurses who have zero critical care experience but are there to help in any way they can. I want to stress that some of these "experienced" ICU nurses are very young, hardly experienced themselves and you can imagine the constant pressure they are under. Weve also been joined by "upskilled" nurses, who will have some kind of previous critical care background, but they will often need nearly as much support as they will often have been out of the field for years to decades. As for the medical cover, they are on wartime rotas which you can imagine is super tough.

This is happening all over the country in almost every trust. It is going to continue for MONTHS. We are going to work under this pressure for MONTHS. I would like you to explain why you think all of this is happening just so we can pointlessly care for people who would have died anyway?

January47 · 13 April 2020

10 minutes ago, los dedos said:

Yes your right to expand on it . Printers to print the packageing. The equipment needs parts nut, bolts etc . I know of two family members that are working that at first you wouldn't think their industry's were essential. But they are busier as the food industry are .

I’d add is that only the people who need to be on site are. All the marketing, sales, hr, accounts people tend to be working from home. And these days that’s probably the majority of the workforce depending on how high automated the production is.

Thefox81 · 13 April 2020

3 minutes ago, z-layrex said:

I'd still quite like a reply to my previous comment on this post as I found myself quite dumbfounded by it.

What do you think we are doing on the ICU'S, pointlessly flogging the disabled and elderly?

My hospital for example has gone from having 4 intensive care units to 10. Within each of those units we are putting 2 patients in bedspaces designed for 1, its cramped and having enough equipment has been an issue. Suddenly finding enough monitoring, ventilators, infusion pumps, dialysis machines etc, as well as fitting it all into small spaces wasn't easy but they managed it. Add to this the nightnare of drug procurement and the need to provide PPE for this many staff and you can see the logistical undertaking that this really has been.

We've staffed this by having the "experienced" ICU nurses (of which there was a shortage of before the pandemic) oversee the care of 2, 3 or 4 level 3 patients (sedated on a ventilator), with the support of "surge nurses", nurses who have zero critical care experience but are there to help in any way they can. I want to stress that some of these "experienced" ICU nurses are very young, hardly experienced themselves and you can imagine the constant pressure they are under. Weve also been joined by "unskilled" nurses, who will have some kind of previous critical care background, but they will often need nearly as much support as they will often have been out of the field for years to decades. As for the medical cover, they are on wartime rotas which you can imagine is super tough.

This is happening all over the country in almost every trust. It is going to continue for MONTHS. We are going to work under this pressure for MONTHS. I would like you to explain why you think all of this is happening just so we can pointlessly care for people who would have died anyway?

Hero cant thank you enough. Along with others on here who work on the frontline i hope that your bravery is rewarded WHEN we do beat this. True national heroes. Thank you 💙💙💙

Nod.E · 13 April 2020

10 minutes ago, z-layrex said:

I'd still quite like a reply to my previous comment on this post as I found myself quite dumbfounded by it.

What do you think we are doing on the ICU'S, pointlessly flogging the disabled and elderly?

My hospital for example has gone from having 4 intensive care units to 10. Within each of those units we are putting 2 patients in bedspaces designed for 1, its cramped and having enough equipment has been an issue. Suddenly finding enough monitoring, ventilators, infusion pumps, dialysis machines etc, as well as fitting it all into small spaces wasn't easy but they managed it. Add to this the nightnare of drug procurement and the need to provide PPE for this many staff and you can see the logistical undertaking that this really has been.

We've staffed this by having the "experienced" ICU nurses (of which there was a shortage of before the pandemic) oversee the care of 2, 3 or 4 level 3 patients (sedated on a ventilator), with the support of "surge nurses", nurses who have zero critical care experience but are there to help in any way they can. I want to stress that some of these "experienced" ICU nurses are very young, hardly experienced themselves and you can imagine the constant pressure they are under. Weve also been joined by "upskilled" nurses, who will have some kind of previous critical care background, but they will often need nearly as much support as they will often have been out of the field for years to decades. As for the medical cover, they are on wartime rotas which you can imagine is super tough.

This is happening all over the country in almost every trust. It is going to continue for MONTHS. We are going to work under this pressure for MONTHS. I would like you to explain why you think all of this is happening just so we can pointlessly care for people who would have died anyway?

I don't particularly want to engage in an argument with somebody on the frontline.

Clearly you're doing all that you can.

Wymsey · 13 April 2020

I knew someone who sadly passed away due to Coronavirus, and she had no history of poor health (only the odd flu here and there).

But her husband, who has been a rather heavy smoker for much of his adult life, never contracted it.

Both in their 80's.

Yet, they were on a cruise ship together when his wife had it.

st albans fox · 13 April 2020

2 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

I knew someone who sadly passed away due to Coronavirus, and she had no history of poor health (only the odd flu here and there).

But her husband, who has been a rather heavy smoker for much of his adult life, never contracted it.

Both in their 80's.

Yet, they were on a cruise ship together when his wife had it.

Was he tested ? If he was asymptomatic then perhaps they didn’t test him ?

Wymsey · 13 April 2020

4 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Was he tested ? If he was asymptomatic then perhaps they didn’t test him ?

Yes, as soon as the cruise ship docked in Southampton.

He was placed with some carers in his house his family provided; because, not only they didn't obviously want him to potentially contract it too, they also didn't want to reveal the death of his wife until Saturday (when he was out of being isolated at home).

Needness to state that he's not happy without his beers and cigarettes..

Freeman's Wharfer · 13 April 2020

Usually blog about Leicester City when I can find time to but today I thought I'd write a piece on my frustration around how the national media our, in my opinion, failing to hold our government to account on the handling of Coronavirus thus far. I know this will divide opinion.

You can read here: https://tinyurl.com/vl3m566

Or I've copied and pasted below:

“When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there. But it is still there”.

This is a line from the excellent HBO historical drama ‘Chernobyl’ and, as the UK comes to the end of an unprecedented Easter weekend, it can at times feel like we are all living through a drama that is being written right now and which, when we return to some form of post-Covid normality, will be put forward for acclaim alongside those other television series and shows on which we binge to while away the banal hours of lockdown.

But how will history judge the lead characters of our time? Who will be the capable and who will be the culpable?

It feels very much to me, that those portrayals are already being subtly crafted now before our very eyes. At the end of a weekend where we reached the point of over 10,000 people in this country having lost their lives to Coronavirus, it has felt all too easy to lose sight of the magnitude of those figures. For they have become just that.

Read it again: 10,000 people in this country have lost their lives.

In a matter of days, it is likely that this number will surpass 11,000 and then 12,000. I wonder at what point that stops becoming digits rolled out at a daily briefing with some nice bar charts and graphs comparing us to other countries who are, in many way, incomparable. And I wonder if that point will bring the type of questions we need answers to around why this figure has been so high, whether we could have done things differently or better to prevent such fatalities and what the exact plan is moving forward to prevent any more avoidable deaths, especially to those working in our Health Service.

Had you read any of the major newspapers this weekend, you’d have done well – on any of the front pages – to find the real news. That 10,000 people in this country have now lost their lives to this virus in the UK. You would have, instead, seen that Boris Johnson was better. That Boris Johnson was out of hospital. That Boris Johnson planned to take a couple of weeks recovering at Chequers. That Boris Johnson had praised the NHS who had saved his life with heart-warming reference to nurse Luis from Portugal.

When any Head of State becomes seriously ill, of course this is news. But the truth – that truth which may offend but is still there in the background – is that this Head of State being ill should not be a free pass on facing the tough questions that need asking about the UK’s handling of this pandemic up until now and from here onwards. Do not let anyone tell you that it is not right to question your government during a pandemic.

Accountability keeps standards high, but I’m not seeing much of it right now.

What I see happening right now – and what frustrates the life out of me – is a mass distraction campaign. When our government should be delivering, they are instead campaigning. The dumbing down of serious issues – in the exact same way that ‘get Brexit done’ Brexit was broken down into simple numbers and phrases that could be spoon-fed to the population (see ‘oven ready’ and ‘take back control’) – we hear about ‘Herculean efforts’ and ‘ramping up’ when they are asked why, two weeks into the thick of this crisis, our National Health Service staff are dying because they are not supplied with the appropriate equipment to do their job.

When they are asked if they are sorry that doctors and nurses have died due to a lack of basic protection, they cannot even muster an apology to the families of those victims. Priti Patel does wear empathy and humanity well at the best of times, but there is only one answer to that question: of course we are sorry and we are doing everything we can to try and minimise the chances of this happening further (here’s how and here’s when).

History already has not been kind to the way this crisis has been handled in the UK. When scientists were advising we were on the cusp of an unprecedented pandemic, our Prime Minister was telling the world he was shaking hands with Coronavirus patients and smirking as he effectively declared Britain would “see this thing off in 12 weeks”. When Italy was telling us of the horrors it had been facing, we were somehow different because we were Great Britain.

There is the old saying that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Well if you elect on slogans and personas rather than policies then you get... slogans and ‘good ol’ Boris’ personas. Something deep in the Brexit memory recess jarred when, asked about the UK’s comparatively low quantity of testing to other countries when the World Health Organisation had advised “testing, testing, testing” as the key to handling this crisis best, Matt Hancock replied: “No test is better than a bad test”. You don’t have to think too hard to remember which deal was better than a bad deal.

And if you elect a government that consistently shows an inability to care for the most vulnerable in our society (see ‘herd’) then don’t be surprised when your government initially pursues a strategy of immunity for our ‘herd’ (see ‘society’). Similar to how, if you also elect a government that has consistently voted against funding and pay rises for the NHS, you also get a health service that is on its knees.

So what of the state the NHS was in coming into this pandemic? When do we ask those questions?

An intensive care capacity of 7 beds per 100,000 of population – Italy and Spain were at 12+ just for comparison – shows that, however great the work to mobilise and build the Nightingale hospitals has been, we were in-part solving a problem we had already created for ourselves. It has also been very easy to forget over the past couple of weeks that the NHS is not a charity. Whilst clapping on your doorstep, running a 5k or shaving your head are admirable and easy ways to support – so too is holding your government accountable to our state funding that service adequately to begin with.

A simple search on YouTube brings up videos of Barrack Obama and Bill Gates a few years ago predicting in the next 5-10 years that a deadly virus would sweep the globe: don’t let anyone tell you it was impossible for a government to expect that this might happen.

Senior scientists were urging the government to raise the risk level of the coronavirus as early as December and January: don’t let anyone tell you that we didn’t have enough time to prepare more.

Britain missed 8 meetings with EU Heads of State or health ministers in between 13^th February and 30^th March on the pandemic: don’t let anyone tell you that we’ve done everything we could have done.

Finally, this is also not a war. If you find yourself comparing Boris Johnson to Churchill or eulogising over a speech that pits us against an ‘enemy’ or puts us ‘in the trenches’ then take a moment to consider how the fallen in this supposed war are currently being treated (largely nameless and faceless in our national media). We are not fighting over land, freedom of speech or religion here – we’re tackling a virus.

Why are our national media - many of whom are in cahoots with the Conservative elite - happy to portray this as such? And why has it been to easy to lose sight of the devastating reality of those numbers of dead and how they could have perhaps been lower?

I know that right now may not be the right time for all of the tough questions to be answered but I just hope that, as our national press fails to ask the right questions or write the real stories, we don’t lose sight of what those should be. My fear, in a weekend where LAD Bible are allowed a seat at the table to ask the government on their Covid-19 strategy – whilst on their Instagram feed I can’t see ‘stories’ about a girl cooking her own McDonalds Big Mac from home and quirky dog videos (which probably speaks volumes for who the government is happy to have scrutinise their strategy right now) – is that they will be obscured in a haze or PR campaigning and distraction.

My fear would be that the responsibility falls to us, the British people, to somehow cut through the noise and the rhetoric and make sure that these questions are asked. Consider whether you had, thus far, been willing to ask them.

There is also a line in ‘Chernobyl’ – about failing to show accountability for the actions taken before and during an unprecedented catastrophe that brings huge threat to human life – “Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask: what is the cost of lies?”

What is the cost if we do not ask the tough questions that currently sit unasked by our press and unanswered by our government?

StanSP · 13 April 2020

Thoughts about Vallance's comments?

Deaths expected to rise rest of this week, then plateau next week as we start to see affects of lockdown/social distancing in place and then start to fall. Quite a positive statement to make and if it does happen hopefully people can be a bit less stressed and see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...

Izzy · 13 April 2020

42 minutes ago, z-layrex said:

I'd still quite like a reply to my previous comment on this post as I found myself quite dumbfounded by it.

What do you think we are doing on the ICU'S, pointlessly flogging the disabled and elderly?

My hospital for example has gone from having 4 intensive care units to 10. Within each of those units we are putting 2 patients in bedspaces designed for 1, its cramped and having enough equipment has been an issue. Suddenly finding enough monitoring, ventilators, infusion pumps, dialysis machines etc, as well as fitting it all into small spaces wasn't easy but they managed it. Add to this the nightnare of drug procurement and the need to provide PPE for this many staff and you can see the logistical undertaking that this really has been.

We've staffed this by having the "experienced" ICU nurses (of which there was a shortage of before the pandemic) oversee the care of 2, 3 or 4 level 3 patients (sedated on a ventilator), with the support of "surge nurses", nurses who have zero critical care experience but are there to help in any way they can. I want to stress that some of these "experienced" ICU nurses are very young, hardly experienced themselves and you can imagine the constant pressure they are under. Weve also been joined by "upskilled" nurses, who will have some kind of previous critical care background, but they will often need nearly as much support as they will often have been out of the field for years to decades. As for the medical cover, they are on wartime rotas which you can imagine is super tough.

This is happening all over the country in almost every trust. It is going to continue for MONTHS. We are going to work under this pressure for MONTHS. I would like you to explain why you think all of this is happening just so we can pointlessly care for people who would have died anyway?

Apart from the government guidelines, if you had one ask/request or piece of advice for Joe Public that would help your situation the most, what would it be?

13 April 2020

25 minutes ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

Had you read any of the major newspapers this weekend, you’d have done well – on any of the front pages – to find the real news. That 10,000 people in this country have now lost their lives to this virus in the UK. You would have, instead, seen that Boris Johnson was better. That Boris Johnson was out of hospital. That Boris Johnson planned to take a couple of weeks recovering at Chequers. That Boris Johnson had praised the NHS who had saved his life with heart-warming reference to nurse Luis from Portugal.

When any Head of State becomes seriously ill, of course this is news. But the truth – that truth which may offend but is still there in the background – is that this Head of State being ill should not be a free pass on facing the tough questions that need asking about the UK’s handling of this pandemic up until now and from here onwards. Do not let anyone tell you that it is not right to question your government during a pandemic.

I don't think our Head of State has been ill recently. She looked alright to me the other week.

st albans fox · 13 April 2020

8 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Thoughts about Vallance's comments?

Deaths expected to rise rest of this week, then plateau next week as we start to see affects of lockdown/social distancing in place and then start to fall. Quite a positive statement to make and if it does happen hopefully people can be a bit less stressed and see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...

That’s an interesting one given that the daily number of deaths are 80% reflective of fatalities from before the previous day. We’re not told exactly how that stacks up across the previous ten days. so the lag in reporting deaths could mean that we may actually plateau later this week. We know that sun/mon/tues will be under reported so wed/thurs will show a rise .......

Guesty · 13 April 2020

58 minutes ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

When they are asked if they are sorry that doctors and nurses have died due to a lack of basic protection, they cannot even muster an apology to the families of those victims. Priti Patel does wear empathy and humanity well at the best of times, but there is only one answer to that question: of course we are sorry and we are doing everything we can to try and minimise the chances of this happening further (here’s how and here’s when).

In situations like this: journalists asking people to say sorry is sort of a trick question. It gives journalists a headline either way and they know spokespeople aren't allowed to answer the question. Lawyers and legal representives tell spokespeople they aren't allowed to apologise for anything under any circumstances in case it impacts any future legal case.

They probably are sorry, but because of the litigious times we live in: they aren't allowed to say sorry as some people might use it against them. I imagine it might also open up the NHS to legal cases if it turns out some of their procurement and distribution has been a problem.

I thought these press briefings were good to begin with as people needed to be kept updated, but they've really gone downhill now. I'm not sure they're needed everyday. A lot of journalists are just looking for headline grabbing gotcha questions and they ask so many long-winded questions it's easy for the spokespeople to evade the tougher questions. I'm also starting to feel sorry for people like the CMO and CSO (and all the other experts they bring out). I doubt they're public speaking experts and people are starting to politicise them now as they stand there with the government - I'm sure they'd be giving the same advice whichever government was in charge. The sooner parliment is recalled the better.

13 April 2020

17 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

That’s an interesting one given that the daily number of deaths are 80% reflective of fatalities from before the previous day. We’re not told exactly how that stacks up across the previous ten days. so the lag in reporting deaths could mean that we may actually plateau later this week. We know that sun/mon/tues will be under reported so wed/thurs will show a rise .......

It looked to me like a couple of regions had plateaued, but obviously im no expert.

Parafox · 13 April 2020

51 minutes ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

Usually blog about Leicester City when I can find time to but today I thought I'd write a piece on my frustration around how the national media our, in my opinion, failing to hold our government to account on the handling of Coronavirus thus far. I know this will divide opinion.

You can read here: https://tinyurl.com/vl3m566

Or I've copied and pasted below:

“When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there. But it is still there”.

This is a line from the excellent HBO historical drama ‘Chernobyl’ and, as the UK comes to the end of an unprecedented Easter weekend, it can at times feel like we are all living through a drama that is being written right now and which, when we return to some form of post-Covid normality, will be put forward for acclaim alongside those other television series and shows on which we binge to while away the banal hours of lockdown.

But how will history judge the lead characters of our time? Who will be the capable and who will be the culpable?

It feels very much to me, that those portrayals are already being subtly crafted now before our very eyes. At the end of a weekend where we reached the point of over 10,000 people in this country having lost their lives to Coronavirus, it has felt all too easy to lose sight of the magnitude of those figures. For they have become just that.

Read it again: 10,000 people in this country have lost their lives.

In a matter of days, it is likely that this number will surpass 11,000 and then 12,000. I wonder at what point that stops becoming digits rolled out at a daily briefing with some nice bar charts and graphs comparing us to other countries who are, in many way, incomparable. And I wonder if that point will bring the type of questions we need answers to around why this figure has been so high, whether we could have done things differently or better to prevent such fatalities and what the exact plan is moving forward to prevent any more avoidable deaths, especially to those working in our Health Service.

Had you read any of the major newspapers this weekend, you’d have done well – on any of the front pages – to find the real news. That 10,000 people in this country have now lost their lives to this virus in the UK. You would have, instead, seen that Boris Johnson was better. That Boris Johnson was out of hospital. That Boris Johnson planned to take a couple of weeks recovering at Chequers. That Boris Johnson had praised the NHS who had saved his life with heart-warming reference to nurse Luis from Portugal.

When any Head of State becomes seriously ill, of course this is news. But the truth – that truth which may offend but is still there in the background – is that this Head of State being ill should not be a free pass on facing the tough questions that need asking about the UK’s handling of this pandemic up until now and from here onwards. Do not let anyone tell you that it is not right to question your government during a pandemic.

Accountability keeps standards high, but I’m not seeing much of it right now.

What I see happening right now – and what frustrates the life out of me – is a mass distraction campaign. When our government should be delivering, they are instead campaigning. The dumbing down of serious issues – in the exact same way that ‘get Brexit done’ Brexit was broken down into simple numbers and phrases that could be spoon-fed to the population (see ‘oven ready’ and ‘take back control’) – we hear about ‘Herculean efforts’ and ‘ramping up’ when they are asked why, two weeks into the thick of this crisis, our National Health Service staff are dying because they are not supplied with the appropriate equipment to do their job.

When they are asked if they are sorry that doctors and nurses have died due to a lack of basic protection, they cannot even muster an apology to the families of those victims. Priti Patel does wear empathy and humanity well at the best of times, but there is only one answer to that question: of course we are sorry and we are doing everything we can to try and minimise the chances of this happening further (here’s how and here’s when).

History already has not been kind to the way this crisis has been handled in the UK. When scientists were advising we were on the cusp of an unprecedented pandemic, our Prime Minister was telling the world he was shaking hands with Coronavirus patients and smirking as he effectively declared Britain would “see this thing off in 12 weeks”. When Italy was telling us of the horrors it had been facing, we were somehow different because we were Great Britain.

There is the old saying that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Well if you elect on slogans and personas rather than policies then you get... slogans and ‘good ol’ Boris’ personas. Something deep in the Brexit memory recess jarred when, asked about the UK’s comparatively low quantity of testing to other countries when the World Health Organisation had advised “testing, testing, testing” as the key to handling this crisis best, Matt Hancock replied: “No test is better than a bad test”. You don’t have to think too hard to remember which deal was better than a bad deal.

And if you elect a government that consistently shows an inability to care for the most vulnerable in our society (see ‘herd’) then don’t be surprised when your government initially pursues a strategy of immunity for our ‘herd’ (see ‘society’). Similar to how, if you also elect a government that has consistently voted against funding and pay rises for the NHS, you also get a health service that is on its knees.

So what of the state the NHS was in coming into this pandemic? When do we ask those questions?

An intensive care capacity of 7 beds per 100,000 of population – Italy and Spain were at 12+ just for comparison – shows that, however great the work to mobilise and build the Nightingale hospitals has been, we were in-part solving a problem we had already created for ourselves. It has also been very easy to forget over the past couple of weeks that the NHS is not a charity. Whilst clapping on your doorstep, running a 5k or shaving your head are admirable and easy ways to support – so too is holding your government accountable to our state funding that service adequately to begin with.

A simple search on YouTube brings up videos of Barrack Obama and Bill Gates a few years ago predicting in the next 5-10 years that a deadly virus would sweep the globe: don’t let anyone tell you it was impossible for a government to expect that this might happen.

Senior scientists were urging the government to raise the risk level of the coronavirus as early as December and January: don’t let anyone tell you that we didn’t have enough time to prepare more.

Britain missed 8 meetings with EU Heads of State or health ministers in between 13^th February and 30^th March on the pandemic: don’t let anyone tell you that we’ve done everything we could have done.

Finally, this is also not a war. If you find yourself comparing Boris Johnson to Churchill or eulogising over a speech that pits us against an ‘enemy’ or puts us ‘in the trenches’ then take a moment to consider how the fallen in this supposed war are currently being treated (largely nameless and faceless in our national media). We are not fighting over land, freedom of speech or religion here – we’re tackling a virus.

Why are our national media - many of whom are in cahoots with the Conservative elite - happy to portray this as such? And why has it been to easy to lose sight of the devastating reality of those numbers of dead and how they could have perhaps been lower?

I know that right now may not be the right time for all of the tough questions to be answered but I just hope that, as our national press fails to ask the right questions or write the real stories, we don’t lose sight of what those should be. My fear, in a weekend where LAD Bible are allowed a seat at the table to ask the government on their Covid-19 strategy – whilst on their Instagram feed I can’t see ‘stories’ about a girl cooking her own McDonalds Big Mac from home and quirky dog videos (which probably speaks volumes for who the government is happy to have scrutinise their strategy right now) – is that they will be obscured in a haze or PR campaigning and distraction.

My fear would be that the responsibility falls to us, the British people, to somehow cut through the noise and the rhetoric and make sure that these questions are asked. Consider whether you had, thus far, been willing to ask them.

There is also a line in ‘Chernobyl’ – about failing to show accountability for the actions taken before and during an unprecedented catastrophe that brings huge threat to human life – “Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask: what is the cost of lies?”

What is the cost if we do not ask the tough questions that currently sit unasked by our press and unanswered by our government?

I've never seen any of your blogs TBH, but this piece is insightful and thought-provoking. I can agree on so many of the points you raise here. Well written, apolitical (as in you don't seem to have a political axe to grind). An interesting read, thank you.

Dahnsouff · 13 April 2020

Would people like to hear that the Government in unison with the opposition are commencing a cross party review of the virus and how it has been handled and steps moving forward, and they will do so right now?

Genuine question (In my mind only one answer is even remotely sensible)

Parafox · 13 April 2020

27 minutes ago, worth_the_wait said:

I don't think our Head of State has been ill recently. She looked alright to me the other week.

Are you watching "The Crown"? Pretty fit on that too.

Dahnsouff · 13 April 2020

Just now, Parafox said:

I've never seen any of your blogs TBH, but this piece is insightful and thought-provoking. I can agree on so many of the points you raise here. Well written, apolitical (as in you don't seem to have a political axe to grind). An interesting read, thank you.

I got the polar opposite impression, it maybe that’s just me.

13 April 2020

Just now, Dahnsouff said:

I got the polar opposite impression, it maybe that’s just me.

Could not agree more.

urban.spaceman · 13 April 2020

*expects instaban*

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StanSP · 13 April 2020

7 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Would people like to hear that the Government in unison with the opposition are commencing a cross party review of the virus and how it has been handled and steps moving forward, and they will do so right now?

Genuine question (In my mind only one answer is even remotely sensible)

I don't think the time is right to do it now. Other pressing matters to be honest. Don't see why it can't be done when this has all calmed down.

Dahnsouff · 13 April 2020

Just now, StanSP said:

I don't think the time is right to do it now. Other pressing matters to be honest. Don't see why it can't be done when this has all calmed down.

It 100% must be done when we have reached an agreed sensible point, blue, red, yellow or even green, no one should be immune of such a review, as it will help in future situations.

rachhere · 13 April 2020

Those who have had symptoms, how long did it take for your cough to go? I thought I had shaken mine off, but it’s come back the past couple of days.

Finnaldo · 13 April 2020

2 minutes ago, StanSP said:

I don't think the time is right to do it now. Other pressing matters to be honest. Don't see why it can't be done when this has all calmed down.

Agreed, the best the opposition can do right now is provide constructive and useful challenges and critiques to government policy where necessary. Leave the moaning to us unqualified and address that once we’re in a position privileged enough to consider it.

StanSP · 13 April 2020

Just now, Finnaldo said:

Agreed, the best the opposition can do right now is provide constructive and useful challenges and critiques to government policy where necessary. Leave the moaning to us unqualified and address that once we’re in a position privileged enough to consider it.

Speak for yourself

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