Your views on how the Tories have handled Coronavirus.

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I don't know if it's a regional thing, but my wife works in the NHS and is at one of the two world-leading University hospitals in Cambridge. They have everything they need - PPE, masks, ventilators and oxygen. Morale amongst the staff is very good and the system appears to be working extremely well.

So if there are hospitals that don't have sufficient equipment (and I don't know if there are or not), who is that down to? The Government, or the hospital management? Again, I don't know, but I do find it strange that I know for a fact some hospitals have everything they need to fight the virus, which seems to go against the take from the media.
If there’s one thing I learned from working in the University Research Finance sector, it’s that Oxford and Cambridge operate in a different stratosphere to any other university in the U.K. I would suspect that the University is financially assisting the hospital side significantly.
 
Why is Boris Johnson recuperating at chequers? Does that now mean all the rest of us Londoners can now swarm out to the rest of the country?
I guess because if he goes back to his Downing street residence he would be tempted to start work again that would be foolish, so he’s been sent to Chequers to recover. And no, you Londoners stay where you are! :laugh8:
 
This could be complete BS but I've read that Asians dont handle alcohol well (genetically?). This is because before water was safe to drink,we in the west were all brewing beer and wine to make a safe to drink liquid. Whilst Asians were all making a safe liquid to drink by boiling their water in the form of tea.
So I guess Asia wouldn't have an ancient tradition of Alcoholic drinks? The only 'traditional' Asian alcoholic drink I can think of is rice wine/sake
Not exactly - there's a percentage of East Asian people who don't handle alcohol well, as you've said this is a genetic thing where the enzyme that breaks down alcohol makes it toxic, but it's far from everyone. I've been on some big sessions with Japanese friends and they had no problem putting it away!

As for traditions of alcoholic drinks, you're right about sake but shochu/soju from Korea has a very long history too, at least many hundreds of years. There's also Baijiu from China which is similarly old.
 
The present government as I can see have failed on the following. Not enough or adequate PPE, lock down too late remember the Cheltenham festival, testing of Frontline staff not quick enough and some false promises about the number of tests they would do knowing it was impossible to achieve, let's not forget we have a PM going round shaking hands and in some ways laughing it off about the virus in the early days bit like Trump who has since learned its not going away as quickly has they would have wanted. Some obvious failing on social distancing especially in parks around the capital. On the positive side workers have or are being paid to stay at home. I also think tax dodgers in this country should now be pursued relentlessly to help pay instead of the working man taking a big hit in months and years to come. Unfortunately the only source of news available is on internet or TV about social distancing I'm sure more people are ignoring it in other parts of the country
 
Someone posted earlier in the thread what should they have done, its easy to slag them off for what they haven't done so lets hear it from the forum members who have been critical.

Should they have -

Locked the country down (including all schools) as soon as the pandemic started and only allowed essential movement. (including no exercising)

Stockpiled millions of pounds of PPE and ventilators just in case this happened, where would the money have come from the NHS budget certainly wouldn't have stood it.

Closed all airports and stopped all movement between countries as soon as they were aware there was a problem..
As has been mentioned there is a stockpile, it has diminished and not been replenished. We are being provided with out of date equipment and told it is fine to use, yet in any other circumstances using out of date equipment would be classed as a serious incident.
Yes a lockdown should have happened much sooner, everyone in Europe was looking to Italy to learn lesson of how to deal with it, instead of taking those lessons (late lockdown and poor enforcement increases mortality rate) the same protocols were followed. Using herd immunity protocols against the advice of numerous members of the science and medical community shows a massive degree of arrogance and underestimation of the damage this virus will do, and is doing as a result. We are an island, had we actually closed down we could have restricted the spread so much more easily than mainland Europe so yes closing down flights except for repatriation measures in which a quarantine could be imposed would be a safe measure.
 
Yes a lockdown should have happened much sooner, everyone in Europe was looking to Italy to learn lesson of how to deal with it, instead of taking those lessons (late lockdown and poor enforcement increases mortality rate) the same protocols were followed.

If they had put lock down in place before coming up with a means of paying wages and allowing key workers kids to still go to school etc there would have been pandemonium and like in London people would have ignored the request and carried on as normal, as has been said many times in the thread hindsight is a wonderful thing.
 
Whatever your opinion of the handling of the situation, you would have to say that this could be the best thing to happen to the NHS in a very long time. After years of neglect, under-funding and unachievable targets, there is now a PM with a personal debt of gratitude to our health service and the recognition that the doctors and nurses have for years delivered above & beyond expectations to make up the many shortfalls in the system.

Yes, taxes will have to rise to pay for it all but nowhere near the levels of US-style health insurance which,no doubt about it, is the direction we were being steered in. You will have to look long and hard to find a private hospital with the equipment and expertise to deal with Covid-19 patients. I'll be out again on Thursday applauding our NHS heroes :)

Paul.
 
The public at large as I can see have failed on the following. Not listening to the advice from government that was widely reported in the media to stay at home and keep their distance. That, at the time and now still, there was no medical cure or vaccine for covid and it could prove deadly. The government gave the advice and information (which people always bleat...”give us the information”) and watched as everybody knowingly ignored it and carried on as usual forcing the government to enforce a lockdown by law! Here we are, 4 weeks later after 3 weeks of lockdown and there are still members of the public ignoring the lockdown. Splinters and planks.
 
Whatever your opinion of the handling of the situation, you would have to say that this could be the best thing to happen to the NHS in a very long time. After years of neglect, under-funding and unachievable targets, there is now a PM with a personal debt of gratitude to our health service and the recognition that the doctors and nurses have for years delivered above & beyond expectations to make up the many shortfalls in the system.

Hmm. I wouldnt hold my breath. Once this is all over and they're are other things to distract the population I bet it'll be back to business
 
Did you read my post/the article I linked to? Are you familiar with the Kings Fund? I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say here to be honest Simon.
My statement was correcting your statement that funding has been cut, if you had said was cut in real terms compared to something I would have no problem with it as long as it was correct.
 
If they had put lock down in place before coming up with a means of paying wages and allowing key workers kids to still go to school etc there would have been pandemonium and like in London people would have ignored the request and carried on as normal, as has been said many times in the thread hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Yet other countries managed it, the financial burden is always going to be an issue, but again we had time to prepare, we knew what the issues would be from the 2016 scenario, we saw what china was doing, what Korea was doing, what New Zealand was doing and what italy was doing. We saw the results there and could have enforced lockdown based on countries who have enforced it showing lower mortality rates than those who didnt.
As for kids for key workers being provided for they are, kind of. We had issues as our nursery closed just as it started to hit our area properly due to the fact they cant claim any of the money sunak promised for all the businesses unless they close, I had the choice of leave my colleagues in the lurch and not get paid and stay home, or leave my son home alone. We eventually found a place for him somewhere else but it was an extra stress I could have done without
 
Yet other countries managed it,

Have you any evidence of how quickly these countries locked down once they had cases its easy to say we were slower but i honestly couldn't tell you how much faster they were..
 
My statement was correcting your statement that funding has been cut, if you had said was cut in real terms compared to something I would have no problem with it as long as it was correct.
Okay that makes sense. Although I feel we are arguing over semantics here. ‘Cut in funding’ vs ‘cut in funding in real terms’ leads to the same outcome. The outcome being that the Torys have invested less in the NHS than it needs in order to provide the level of service we all require. As the article mentions, whilst all governments have increased spending year on year, the Tory government have cut the size of the increase by over sixty percent.
 
Italy and the UK entered nationwide lockdowns around the same time. Italy's took place 17 days after the country's first death, while in the UK it took place 18 days later. Spain's lockdown happened earlier.
The newly announced restrictions follow days of controversy over whether the UK was moving too slowly to force Britons to stay at home except in exceptional circumstances as the death toll reached 335.



China
Lockdown in Hubei province begins 23 January with death toll at 17

China, where the first cases of coronavirus emerged, was the first country to announce a major lockdown, in Wuhan and the other big cities in Hubei province. At the time of the announcement, the disease was confirmed to have claimed 17 lives and infected almost 600 other people, although it is not clear how accurate a picture this represents after the first cases emerged in mid-December.

In the early hours of 23 January, residents were told that from 10am that day all public transport would be closed and residents of Wuhan were forbidden to leave the city, although large numbers are believed to have fled before the lockdown. By late afternoon, roads from Wuhan and other exits had been shut off.


Italy
Lockdown begins 9 March with death toll at 463 and 9,000 infections

Italy imposed its lockdown after attempting a limited quarantine of northern towns and then a chaotic quarantine of the north only that led to thousands attempting to flee.

The lockdown restricted movement of the population except for necessity, work and health circumstances. Additional restrictions mandated the temporary closure of non-essential shops and businesses. Two days later, the lockdown was tightened to close all commercial and retail businesses except those providing essential services, such as grocery stores and pharmacies.


Spain
Lockdown begins 15 March with death toll at 288 and 7,753 cases

After a marathon cabinet session the day before, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, told Spaniards they were banned from leaving home except for work and for essential travel. Cases had exploded at the start of the month, with 30 deaths by 9 March.

A state of emergency also ordered the closure of all non-essential shops as well as bars, restaurants, cafes, football grounds and cinemas. People are allowed out only to work, to buy food and medicine, to travel to health centres or banks, and to look after the elderly or dependants.

France
Lockdown announced on evening of 16 March with death toll at 148 and with 6,633 confirmed cases

France had reached China’s 17 deaths around 8 March and moved to a full lockdown just over a week later. Similar to the Italian lockdown, French citizens were tightly restricted, with people expected to stay at home, leaving only for essential activities such as food shopping on pain of a fixed fine of €135. Officials later clarified that a dispensation for exercise meant walks or runs of no more than “1km, 2km max” and close to home.
 
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Have you any evidence of how quickly these countries locked down once they had cases its easy to say we were slower but i honestly couldn't tell you how much faster they were..
Well take Ireland for example really good one as they are essentially on the same timeline as we are, they have a similar number of ITU beds per 100000 people as we do, they locked down two weeks before we did. Deaths per 100000 people is 6.5, ours is 14.8.
London had already become overwhelmed by the time we enforced lockdown and were placing covid +ve and -ve patients in the same areas as they didnt have anywhere else to put them. I cant give you the exact date New Zealand locked down but it was essentially as soon as they had cases, so far 4 deaths that I am aware of, it may be more now as that data is about 5 days old
 
Why is no one moaning about us being the only country that didn't have a total lock down like other countries we are the only one of those listed above who allow people to exercise with little restriction.
 
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So you think they would rather deal with excessive deaths than a potential backlash from idiots not willing to sit at home to save their own lives?
 
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