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The BBC has been doing pretty badly. For example, you may recall that there is currently a global shortage of every single consumable required for coronavirus t
by makomk 7y ago
The BBC has been doing pretty badly. For example, you may recall that there is currently a global shortage of every single consumable required for coronavirus testing. The BBC has been running multiple articles a day pushing the narrative that this is actually a local political failing of the current party. They're particularly keen on the angle that the government has failed because they're not testing NHS staff, meaning they have to self-isolate unnecessarily. Almost no countries in the world have enough tests to systematically test their medical staff. A few of the more affected cities in the US have started doing it recently, and Germany is probably at least capable of it as of a few days ago, but that's more or less it. Also, all the current tests give a false negative on about a third of people who have the coronavirus, so telling medical staff or anyone else not to self-isolate based on them is a terrible and dangerous idea. Public Health England's contact tracing program specifically told people who'd tested negative to remain quarantined for the full waiting period because of this.
- summerdown2 7y agoFrom your comments, I'd almost believe the government were doing well, rather than overtaking Italy in deaths per day at this point on the curve: https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest All the reports you've mentioned are also echoed throughout the UK press. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/02/shambles-chaos-ridiculous-what-the-uk-papers-say-about-covid-19-testing https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/02/shambles-cha... Even the Telegraph - a massively pro Tory paper that has had Boris Johnson as a writer - is ripping into the government over its testing. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/02/thursday-morning-news-briefing-questions-without-answers/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/02/thursday-morning... > Almost no countries in the world have enough tests to systematically test their medical staff. Key word that... 'almost.'
- soneil 7y agoIt can be comparable to other countries and still be a failing. Our task here isn't to beat Germany, or China, or America. It's to beat the virus. We need to compare our availability to our needs, not to Germany's availability.