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The lack of PPE is a world-wide problem. The UK imported tonnes of the stuff for Turkey, but it was deemed to be not fit for purpose. Other countries have bee

The lack of PPE is a world-wide problem. The UK imported tonnes of the stuff for Turkey, but it was deemed to be not fit for purpose. Other countries have been asking for water-proof coats, that can be used as washable over-garments. I don't think any government is going to come out of this scoring 100%.

makomk 6y ago
It's a world-wide problem that the media in every Western country seem to be spinning as a unique failure of their government, often for cynical and stupid partisan reasons. Same with the global shortage of everything needed to carry out widespread coronavirus testing.
- teruakohatu 6y ago
  Agreed. We had the same stories here in New Zealand, a country which currently has 40 active cases and less than one new case per day (7 day average). Yet we constantly hear how we are running out or going to run out of X or Y. More often than not I think it is logistics. Despite being a small country with centrally funded healthcare, the management of the health system is very decentralized geographically. So some doctor somewhere runs out of something, and runs straight to the media who are happy to run it on the homepage.
- 7952 6y ago
  But then the government also politicise it by telling lies about there own performance. If there isn't enough PPE then they should admit to that.
TLightful 6y ago
The UK response has been terrible in all respects. Please don't sugar coat it.
- Angostura 6y ago
  Nope, in many repects it's been pretty good. The respects that it has been very poor at was: * Being complacent about the country's testing capacity * stopping testing outside of hospitals once the containment phase was deemed over * PPE logistics. (tough global problem) * Support for care-homes. * Westminster's lack of care when it comes to coordinating the loosening of lock-down with the devolved countries It was arguable that they should have started lock-down earlier, but given that the number of acute beds in the NHS wasn't overwhelmed, that's arguable. If you look at stuff like the furlough scheme, support for individuals and freelancers so people don't suffer too much economically by being locked down, it a pretty good and swift response.
  - TLightful 6y ago
    So, "nope", but, actually, "yeah". * unclear and delayed response to pandemic, * frequent lying and misinformation put out by ministers, * considering herd immunity with no vaccine, The list goes on and on ... Yes, the furlough scheme, is decent. But smacks of just throwing money at the problem to save the day. It's not a coordinated response, and we'll be paying for it for generations. I repeat my assertion. Thanks.
  - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
    Yet we still have the worst death rate in Europe. Why was Germany so much better off than us.
    - arethuza 6y ago
      Isn't the answer at the moment "we don't know" - I'm no fan of the current government but I don't think it helps blaming them before someone has analysed the relevant facts.
      - jansan 6y ago
        Exactly. There is still a lot that we do not understand. And scientists have not impressed either, with theri lack of knowledge about spreading of the virus. What I find remarkable is that eastern European countries like Hungary, Poland and Czechia have done remarkably well during this crisis. Also, countries like India and Sri Lanka have barely been affected. What are the reasons?
- SiempreViernes 6y ago
  Please calibrate your scale, keeping in mind that you also need to grade US and Brazilian response on the low end.
yread 6y ago
Letting Cheltenham festival (13-16 March) and other sport events go ahead with 10s thousands of people visiting should criminally punished
- DanBC 6y ago
  In 2020 there were over 240,000 attenders for Cheltenham festival. The town has a population of about 100,000. Each day there were about 60,000 people at the track. People say the festival is outside so it's lower risk. That's ignoring the fact that people take trains to get here and they take buses to get from the town centre to the race track. They also meet in cafés, pubs and betting shops, although this year that was far quieter than previous years. Letting it go ahead was a baffling choice.
DanBC 6y ago
Lack of PPE is a world wide problem. That problem is made worse in the UK because of the lack of planning and political disruption to NHS infrastructure. See for example the fucking shambles of Movianto[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-uk-privately-run-ppe-stockpile-chaos-movianto https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-uk... We used to have NHS Logistics Authority, which changed to NHS Logistics, which was sold off to DHL Supply Chain (but managed by NHS Business Services Authority) and that was a disaster so we now have NHS Supply Chain. This waxing and waning of ideology (centralised control vs localism; NHS provision vs private provision) causes huge amounts of waste and harm in the NHS. It's also not as simple as tories=bad, labour=good. Selling it off to DHL happened under a Labour government; bringing it back under NHS Supply Chain happened under a Conservative government.
- arethuza 6y ago
  "centralised control vs localism; NHS provision vs private provision" I've known some unscrupulous management consultants who would just recommend the opposite of what the current state was just to generate work.

makomk 6y ago

It's a world-wide problem that the media in every Western country seem to be spinning as a unique failure of their government, often for cynical and stupid partisan reasons. Same with the global shortage of everything needed to carry out widespread coronavirus testing.

teruakohatu 6y ago
Agreed. We had the same stories here in New Zealand, a country which currently has 40 active cases and less than one new case per day (7 day average). Yet we constantly hear how we are running out or going to run out of X or Y. More often than not I think it is logistics. Despite being a small country with centrally funded healthcare, the management of the health system is very decentralized geographically. So some doctor somewhere runs out of something, and runs straight to the media who are happy to run it on the homepage.
7952 6y ago
But then the government also politicise it by telling lies about there own performance. If there isn't enough PPE then they should admit to that.

TLightful 6y ago

The UK response has been terrible in all respects. Please don't sugar coat it.

Angostura 6y ago
Nope, in many repects it's been pretty good. The respects that it has been very poor at was: * Being complacent about the country's testing capacity * stopping testing outside of hospitals once the containment phase was deemed over * PPE logistics. (tough global problem) * Support for care-homes. * Westminster's lack of care when it comes to coordinating the loosening of lock-down with the devolved countries It was arguable that they should have started lock-down earlier, but given that the number of acute beds in the NHS wasn't overwhelmed, that's arguable. If you look at stuff like the furlough scheme, support for individuals and freelancers so people don't suffer too much economically by being locked down, it a pretty good and swift response.
- TLightful 6y ago
  So, "nope", but, actually, "yeah". * unclear and delayed response to pandemic, * frequent lying and misinformation put out by ministers, * considering herd immunity with no vaccine, The list goes on and on ... Yes, the furlough scheme, is decent. But smacks of just throwing money at the problem to save the day. It's not a coordinated response, and we'll be paying for it for generations. I repeat my assertion. Thanks.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  Yet we still have the worst death rate in Europe. Why was Germany so much better off than us.
  - arethuza 6y ago
    Isn't the answer at the moment "we don't know" - I'm no fan of the current government but I don't think it helps blaming them before someone has analysed the relevant facts.
    - jansan 6y ago
      Exactly. There is still a lot that we do not understand. And scientists have not impressed either, with theri lack of knowledge about spreading of the virus. What I find remarkable is that eastern European countries like Hungary, Poland and Czechia have done remarkably well during this crisis. Also, countries like India and Sri Lanka have barely been affected. What are the reasons?
SiempreViernes 6y ago
Please calibrate your scale, keeping in mind that you also need to grade US and Brazilian response on the low end.

yread 6y ago

Letting Cheltenham festival (13-16 March) and other sport events go ahead with 10s thousands of people visiting should criminally punished

DanBC 6y ago
In 2020 there were over 240,000 attenders for Cheltenham festival. The town has a population of about 100,000. Each day there were about 60,000 people at the track. People say the festival is outside so it's lower risk. That's ignoring the fact that people take trains to get here and they take buses to get from the town centre to the race track. They also meet in cafés, pubs and betting shops, although this year that was far quieter than previous years. Letting it go ahead was a baffling choice.

DanBC 6y ago

Lack of PPE is a world wide problem. That problem is made worse in the UK because of the lack of planning and political disruption to NHS infrastructure. See for example the fucking shambles of Movianto[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-uk-privately-run-ppe-stockpile-chaos-movianto https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/coronavirus-uk... We used to have NHS Logistics Authority, which changed to NHS Logistics, which was sold off to DHL Supply Chain (but managed by NHS Business Services Authority) and that was a disaster so we now have NHS Supply Chain. This waxing and waning of ideology (centralised control vs localism; NHS provision vs private provision) causes huge amounts of waste and harm in the NHS. It's also not as simple as tories=bad, labour=good. Selling it off to DHL happened under a Labour government; bringing it back under NHS Supply Chain happened under a Conservative government.

arethuza 6y ago
"centralised control vs localism; NHS provision vs private provision" I've known some unscrupulous management consultants who would just recommend the opposite of what the current state was just to generate work.