We need action now as we have the benefit of hindsight

Witzend: One thing I wish they’d do - stricter enforcement of face masks. We were in France in July (drove via tunnel, no planes or airports) and the signs on shops and motorway services said masks were obligatory.

I agree. We can now be fined for not wearing a face mask but we don't seem to be able/willing to enforce this. I often see people in shops without masks. Bus drivers where I live certainly don't comment when passengers board the bus without masks. I wonder what drivers would do if a passenger refused to pay the fare and just sat down in the bus. Would that also just be ignored?

One thing I wish they’d do - stricter enforcement of face masks. We were in France in July (drove via tunnel, no planes or airports) and the signs on shops and motorway services said masks were obligatory.

Here it’s usually, ‘Please wear a face covering’, and I’ve seen quite a few without. It’s just too easy for anyone who doesn’t feel like wearing one to say - if ever asked - that they’re exempt.
In my local corner shop it’s nearly always just me and the bloke on the till wearing one and I don’t believe for a moment that everybody else has some exempting condition - they just don’t want to or CBA to remember to take one.

Ah Maizie- you really did make me laugh- thanks.

I think that the steer from the scientists is clear.

Action must be taken now.

MaizieD

I've got it now, Ug!

You're his mother!

She would be the only woman in the land whose love for him blinds her to his numerous imperfections...

OMG! Now I’ve read that all becomes clear. It’s one of those ‘Saul on the road to Damascus’ moments. Of course!

My daughter lives in a village on the West coast of Scotland the rate are growing alarmingly there.Many traced back to a funeral 2 weeks ago( 27 cases ) but teachers and even pupils from the primary school now.There are more being added daily and half the village is isolating .We were doing so well with no deaths and hardly any new cases but its all gone to pot .My OH says he's sick hearing young men saying its a con and even if its not its only OLD folk who die from it ,he usually tells them HES one of the OLD men they are so dismissive of.Then its Oh but you know we dont mean you!!

a good man doing his best ???
There are 2 things wrong with that statement.
1. He’s not a “good man”
2. His best is evidently not good enough- he shouldn’t be doing the job if all we can say is he’s doing his best, (but he’s useless).

These are the main recommendations from Independent Sage ...

Whitewavemark2
"I fervently hope that Johnson will take the SAGE advise and introduce measures immediately".

Since comparisons are often made with Sweden this might be of interest:

Quote: It is written into the national constitution that Sweden's public agencies are independent of the government. There are two main goals of this: ensuring that decisions are made based on knowledge and expertise, and limiting corruption, because ministers cannot have influence in agency decision-making. There is a strict line of division when it comes to responsibility, and in the corona crisis this is quite visible. The government has its role in taking the overall lead, but all the time has to respect the expertise and independence of the agencies .

This division goes back very far in time to the 17th century. There is a strong idea in Sweden that civil servants should be safeguarded from the pressures that come from the political side. It lives on, and I think it's done what it was meant to do. There is very little curruption in Sweden. End quote.

www.thelocal.se/20200330/whos-actually-in-charge-of-swedens-coronavirus-strategy

He’s a good man doing his best in difficult circumstances. - gosh!!

I am sorry he had Covid; I am sorry he might be feeling unwell. He is a fellow human being. I recognise that dealing with Covid is hard - but made even harder by his bumbling delays and jobs-for-the-boys attitude.

However there is no way that anyone, just anyone, could possibly describe him as a good man. He is a rogue and a charlatan and a liar and a cheat. And renowned for it. Our lives are basically in the hands of this man and the right-hand man, without whom he appears unable to fart even - what a fate.

Mea culpa. I was 10y old when I gave birth. It was headline news for a while MaizieD!
?

A lockdown would be a disaster - as if isn't bad enough already. I am meeting more and more people who are struggling with their mental health. Two friends are now taking antidepressants and a third friend is saying she feels suicidal! The strange thing is that I still don't know anyone who has had Covid or tested positive!

I've got it now, Ug!

You're his mother!

She would be the only woman in the land whose love for him blinds her to his numerous imperfections...

He’s a good man doing his best in difficult circumstances.

#swiveleyedloon
??

Boris was useless before Covid - remember him taking the phone off a reporter who tried to show him something he didn't want to acknowledge? Remember him hiding in the fridge? Remember him making the case worst for the woman imprisoned in Iran? Remember, remember, remember.

So no use blaming his total lack of leadership and his inability to grasp anything on Covid. He's always been the same.

His 'oven ready' deal is
incinerated, the only thing 'world-beating' is our mortality rate, his mooning thing is barefaced fantasy and now we have a new sound bite...'circuit breaker' or some such garbage.

He's a joke ?

I have absolutely no empathy for Johnson. He's not up to the job - and he wasn't up to it, even before he caught Covid-19. He should go!

It would still be interesting to know why "Getting Brexit done" is going to be beneficial to anybody except a few jingoistic swivel-eyed loons or mega-rich tax dodgers..

If he is incapable of doing the job, Ug, which he is, he should go right now. Not compound his utter appallingness by hanging on to the bitter end.

But what is being ignored in all this 'what's all the fuss about' stuff is that even a mild dose of C19 can cause life altering long term damage

Which is I suspect why so many ought to have some empathy with Boris.
?

You know, the guy who was very poorly, didn’t take the paternity leave that many on here howled he would do ‘because he’s lazy’ and is doing his best to guide us through this pandemic.

Actually I think his Cabinet is weak but he didn’t dare appoint Remainers - like Amber Rudd - until he Got. Brexit. Done.

Once we’re past 1 January I think he’ll turf out some of the lightweights - Matt Hancock, Gavin Williamson and Liz Truss to name a few - and bring in some big hitters.

Islecat

Quite agree Bluebelle. Official figures show virus dropped from 8th place last month to 24th with dementia and heart disease at the top.

Deaths have fallen because older people have, on the whole, continued to be very cautious and take precautions against catching covid. There are still older people who have barely left their homes since March. Despite that, covid deaths are now on the rise

But what is being ignored in all this 'what's all the fuss about' stuff is that even a mild dose of C19 can cause life altering long term damage. And that includes damage to relatively young people.

Daisymae

Lockdown is not a cure, it's just hitting the pause button. We should have the promised track and trace up and running so that as restrictions eased cases could be managed. That didn't happen. We are in trouble, all of it quite predictable.

Whatever the failures of past Covid-19 policy as a nation we are where we are. Therefore, further renewed restrictions are required to bring the infection once again under control and then (hopefully) we can go forward from there with a test system that is adequate for the requirement of the need

Lockdown is not a cure, it's just hitting the pause button. We should have the promised track and trace up and running so that as restrictions eased cases could be managed. That didn't happen. We are in trouble, all of it quite predictable.

Islecat

Quite agree Bluebelle. Official figures show virus dropped from 8th place last month to 24th with dementia and heart disease at the top.

What the current batch of Covid-19 deniers always fell to mention is the fact that the lockdown brought the infection rate for Coronavirus down to levels below of that of other health problems.

However, the rate of infections is now once again rising rapidly, and with Covid-19 being highly infectious, that rise in the infection rate will continue to increase overwhelming the NHS and other essential services unless radical action is once again taken.

Some people will not acknowledge the above as a fact it would seem until they are sat at home in the dark, with all in there fridge going rancid, nothing on the shelves of the supermarkets and the NHS overwhelmed and being unable to treat them should they fall ill.

MaizieD

Furret

Oops wrong thread ?

Never mind. I enjoyed it ?

Good! I could just as easily applied to the corruption thread!

Quite agree Bluebelle. Official figures show virus dropped from 8th place last month to 24th with dementia and heart disease at the top.

That was my question Grandad.....I wanted greater minds input!

I had read that article in the Guardian a few months ago Furret and it seems the Japanese are more compliant than us Brits when given guidelines, have more hygienic lifestyles I.e. masks in winter/spring and bow rather than shake hands.

Seems like too simple an answer for the massive gap between us, somehow.