O/T Coronavirus Thread (4)

[flourbasher]

Covid-19 is a completely new disease which was not reported to WHO until December 30th. With that being the case, I think it completely fair to cut the UK government some slack. The science of the illness and the dynamics of its spread are still being researched and debated - even the mortality rate is uncertain. Coupled with that, it is clear that the virus has mutated several times, including becoming better able to spread and to be more stealthy (with people becoming infectious before they become symptomatic), which means that the maths that sits under governmental responses has also changed over time.

I’m sure that the government’s actions will be scrutinised for years at the end of this (as they should be). When we know what their advisers were telling them and can see the details of the decision making, we will be able to assess their performance from an informed position. Trying to do it now helps nobody and risks making unfair judgements. If the eventual conclusion is that 'they did their best' then surely we could ask for no more?

Track and trace isn't a medical procedure though it's purely a management tool to monitor the movements of people and therefore any illness they might have. It's fairly simple to set up too in so much as all you need is some resource and a decent communication system. I t would have been within the capabilities of the uk to divert some of the vastly oversubscribed NHS responders to this task and asked the comms companies to react quickly.

Track and trace could be applied to a range of virus, diseases Etc as it,s merely a way of knowing where a medical issue is and where it's spreading so I don't think the govt could use the excuse that they didn't know what they were dealing with. It's a bit of a red herring.

With Singapore being a Commonwealth country it should have been a fairly easy to ask for advice on how they dealt with previous pandemics and they would have been more forthcoming than asking China. It's a simple management technique to follow best practice where others have already got some of the answers

I'm not Govt bashing here as they've done some faulous things such as setting up the temporary hospitals but I really think they missed a trick.

[KerrAvon]

Track and trace isn't a medical procedure though it's purely a management tool to monitor the movements of people and therefore any illness they might have. It's fairly simple to set up too in so much as all you need is some resource and a decent communication system. I t would have been within the capabilities of the uk to divert some of the vastly oversubscribed NHS responders to this task and asked the comms companies to react quickly.

Track and trace could be applied to a range of virus, diseases Etc as it,s merely a way of knowing where a medical issue is and where it's spreading so I don't think the govt could use the excuse that they didn't know what they were dealing with. It's a bit of a red herring.

With Singapore being a Commonwealth country it should have been a fairly easy to ask for advice on how they dealt with previous pandemics and they would have been more forthcoming than asking China. It's a simple management technique to follow best practice where others have already got some of the answers

I'm not Govt bashing here as they've done some faulous things such as setting up the temporary hospitals but I really think they missed a trick.

I have said from the outset on these threads that the issue of whether testing capacity in this country could have been ramped up sooner is one that needs to be looked at. It is almost certainly the case that the lack of that capacity was behind the decision of the government to abandon the initial track and contain phase of its response.

My point wasn't primarily about governments learning from governments. That learning is valuable, but there are limits upon that value when seeking to apply it to a different illness. My point was that countries that had to deal with SARS and MERS have populations that have a far better understanding of the risks and the needs to take steps to protect themselves than the UK population.