ANGER

There will be a lot of “blaming” by the government.

Don’t play their game and nod like a donkey, be aware of the facts. There is masses out there that shows this government has made very poor decisions indeed.

By all means be angry but not at your own expense. Save your anger for when you vote, never forget the thousands of unnecessary deaths. You owe it to them to ensure the piper pays the price.

They could look to New Zealand.

They could look to Germany.

They could look to South Korea.

You can blame OTHER countries all you like. The fact is, we live here. Our healthcare services are here. Our lives depend on what our government do.

They did not heed advice.

Of COURSE I'm behind the healthcare services. THEY are the ones saving lives. The government is responsible for many of these deaths.

I'll say again. This is NOT party politics. I don't care who is in power as long as they HEED expert advice. NOT stand on a daily podium and lie.

How do those of you who think they are doing a 'sterling', 'excellent' and 'great' job feel about Matt Hancock accusing NHS workers of wasting PPE?

I really believe they are doing the best that they can do. If that best isn’t good enough, then I don’t know what would be. We are all struggling to get through this, the government included.

Maybe I’m too much of a conformist. I don’t go looking for conspiracy theories and hidden agendas. But I am a Tory, so obviously I back them. If I was a Labour support maybe I would feel differently. And that’s not written to wind anyone up. Just a thought.

According to a yougov poll the UK is more compliant than most other countries so perhaps we should start to pay ourselves in the back. I think that trying to blame the public is a diversion from where true responsibility lies. Yes, I think that we should be angry. This pandemic has not just arrived out of the blue. It has been expected and preparations made. A war games trial a few years ago showed how ill equipped we were yet nothing was done to rectify the situation.

How about being angry with China? How about getting angry with a dictatorial Chinese Government that can limit the amount of children a couple can have but not stop them eating endangered Pangolins.

How about getting angry with the WHO who agreed with China and put out a statement on 11th January 2020 saying “human to human transmission is highly unlikely”

Many epidemiologists are questioning China’s death figures.

Germany only registers a death as Covid-19 if there were no underlying causes in those cases the underlying cause is listed.

It’s time to stop knocking the UK get behind the NHS, Frontline Workers and the Government. Impossible to get behind the opposition as they are clueless.

jaylucy I am also totally convinced this virus was amongst us a lot early than first thought it was,the symtoms are the exactly the same as what my husband died of in early December nothing will change my mind on this even my own Dr questioned the coroners report and said he had seen cases in September last year so yes I am very angry.

This virus is an unknown. Nobody knows the best way to deal with it. Different countries are trying different things. It is all a learning curve. I think the government have done a brilliant job. No blame lies with them. The blame lies with the source of the virus. The blood is on the hands of the Chinese. They could have let the world know sooner. They hoped to contain it but they couldn't so in the end they had to let the world know.... I am a positive person...I know we will get through this and I think this slowing down of our lives can only help all of us in the long run. Look after yourselves and smile when you look in the mirror...it will lift your spirits. Sending Peace x

And if your loved ones don’t come out of this alive and healthy?

And yes, we have a right to demand explanation from this government now and when it is ‘all over’. However I feel that latter is not within sight and humans may be dealing with this virus for many years to come.

I hope I am wrong,

If me and my loved ones come out of this alive and healthy, I'll feel immense gratitude, not angry. Craftyone has it right.

Of course it hasn’t bern around ‘far longer’ than 5 months. This piece of misinformation is currently doing the rounds on FB and other social media. Believe me if you have a background in sciences and understand how viruses spread this simply cannot be true.

What is true is that some common colds are actually a form of Coronavirus which is where this rumour came from. But this is a virus - one which hasn’t been seen before.

Apologies, that should read only bested by the US (gramatically, a VERY poor sentence).

A 'sterling' or 'fantastic' job????? With that death toll?

We are doing the WORST job in Europe! Only bested by the UK and that is down to having a lunatic for a leader. I don't think our leaders are lunatics. But they are totally inept.

I agree, a challenging situation for any (and every world) government regardless of political affiliation. But ours are doing 2nd worst.

If anger makes you feel better and helps you get through this fine. I agree there has to be a reckoning at the end of this crisis but not in anger. There will have been mistakes made in China as well as here but these are unprecedented events that need to be looked at in a rational manner so that we can learn from this experience and hopefully avoid a recurrence in the future. Some of the scientific advice has been flawed and the media have sensationalised everything. When this is over let us look at things calmly and examine what happened. We will be judged by history in any case.

I agree with craftyone it is not our government we should be getting angry with and I agree that this has been around far longer than we are being lead to believe .

As it stands I don’t have any anger to use on anyone right now. Just sadness .

I think the government are doing a fantastic job. I think that this virus would have challenged any government, Tory, Labour etc.

As others have said, how the country is rallying round is amazing. It’s horrendous what is happening out there. I know of quite a few close friends who have lost loved ones in the past couple of weeks from the virus.

But all of them support the government and the sterling job it’s been doing.

Whitewave - yes, don't waste energy on anger is the point I didn't make very well.
We all have enough feelings to manage in this difficult time, getting angry will change absolutely nothing.
We have increased our monthly subscription to the local charity supporting homeless and people in need in our town. We are avoiding supermarkets so no longer leaving food etc in the charity boxes so they're getting cash instead.

And of course there should be a proper enquiry, when the situation returns to more or less normal, to see whether things were done right and to ensure that we're better prepared in future.

Statements like this make me close to despairing.

There was a simulation exercise in 2016/17. It was called Operation Cygnus. The conclusion was that the NHS would fail catastrophically. The tories decided to do nothing to implement the report's recommendations on the grounds that it wouldn't be 'cost effective'. The report was suppressed.

What is the guarantee that an enquiry 'when this is over' wouldn't have exactly the same result?

I'm with GagaJo on the 'anger' issue. Some people have to keep this issue alive. It's my experience of life that if extremists push for something you get a result, even if it's more moderate than the the extremists would like it to be. No extremists, poorer chance of getting anything at all done...

No, you don't have to spend 24 hours a day seething with rage, of course that's futile and damaging. But the appallingness of events as they unfold shouldn't fail to get an emotional response.

It is the easiest thing in the world to just sit back and not challenge the status quo.

Anger is a rational response when you consider the absolute pigs ear the government made in the decision making process over the past 3-4 months.

The government will be held to account at the appropriate time.

Meanwhile save your energy for your own mental and physical health.

Thank you Jaylucy for your COMMON SENSE post, and also yours, craftyone.

craftyone your last sentence is spot on. I couldn't agree more.

How is anger remotely helpful in this particular situation?
All over the world, there will be lessons learned about how best to cope with a pandemic on this scale. Our government and its advisers have said as much on a regular basis.
We do the best we can with what we know at the time: when we know better, we do better.
In my view, a better approach on a personal level is to use kindness to help those who are struggling in these unprecedented times and to look for the positives in this strange bubble we are living in.

The virus has been kept under wraps in china for a long time. They are who you should be angry with gagajo

Our government are doing a sterling job. My relation, running a research lab also re-iterates about defective testing kits giving incorrect results

Anger does no-one any good. Change it to being helpful, my sister is helpfully organising in her community, looking after people and delegating to those who would like to help but are a bit reticent. It is the easiest thing in the world to rant and rave whilst sitting on one`s backside doing bugger all for the community as a whole