So why are you commenting on it then on this thread....? and making out that is is better managed here.. or China has been keeping secrets ( with no sources etc) etc
UK worst hit of all G7 countries https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53222182 The UK was the hardest hit of all the G7 major industrialised nations in the weeks leading up to early June, according to BBC analysis of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Analysis also showed that England fared the worst in Europe, just above Spain. The research compared 11-week periods for each nation as the virus hit its peak in each country. The analysis of Covid-19 deaths and excess deaths - which compared countries in three different ways - showed the UK worse off than the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan. A separate analysis of European nations, by Oxford University economists, has England just above Spain in terms of the proportion of death
The former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his wife were sentenced to jail today for embezzling public funds. Ex-President Sarkozy is to stand trial in October on corruption charges. This is the first of many corruption investigations Sarkozy faces. Ex-President Chirac was found guilty of fraud in 2011. Are they told it is part of the job?
Here's something odd - having allowed everyone else to mingle 1+ metres apart, Rees Mogg decrees that MPs will remain 2 metres apart. Is that because a) He thinks that the lives of [his] MPs are too valuable to risk? or b) Because he wants everyone else to run the risk of catching it - in line with his party's herd immunity policy? or c) Both of the above?
Nicola Sturgeon has said she cannot rule out introducing quarantining or screening for travellers coming from England if infection rates rise south of the border. “We haven’t come this far over the last three months surely simply to allow our infection rates to start having to spiral again, so we’re going to have to be really hard-headed from a public health perspective here.” Good for her. I see that Greece is banning visitors and Ireland is quarantining travellers from England still. Pointless for them to risk further infections from a country that is still very much a danger to all around it.
Whether we like it or not we will still have to deal with these Johnny foreigners long after we stop subsiding them, through the coronavirus period and beyond. It is good to know the type of calibre of leaders we are dealing with.
Leicester goes back into a lockdown again with non-essential shops and schools closing. Pubs and restaurants will not open at the weekend. I wonder how many people will simply get in the car and go to where the pubs are open?
No it's none of the above. If you remember, he needs to stretch out so he can sleep whenever other people are on their feet.
Anyone else wondered why doctors surgeries and the rest of the NHS seem to have disappeared off the planet? We have been told the NHS is no longer under pressure so why can't doctors & hospitals re-open for consultation at the very least? Consultations normally don't involve much risk as most are just a discussion with perhaps and examination which in most cases can be carried out safely with PPE. What are these medical staff doing (ok there are telephone consultations). On the other hand it seems that most people are surviving without regular visits to the doctor or they are suffering in silence. Out dental practice is really frustrated in not being able to treat patients. To their credit I get regular emails explaining why they are not allowed to for fear of being struck off and just lately they have invested in expensive equipment & special PPE to allow them to carry out treatments (normally only private practices can afford this or hospitals) without falling foul of the authorities. I have not heard a cheep from my doctor. If shops and pubs can open, so can doctors. It feels like that they are using the pandemic as an excuse to do very little, like the teachers, who really should be telling their unions to get lost.
Not sure why doctors are not giving appointments Scully, no problems here. Mme phoned up surgery at 11.00 am as she needed a new prescription and had a check up and new prescription at 5.00 pm the same day. My daughter in Gloucester who has to have regular check ups gets an appointment in three weeks in normal times if she is lucky, so there is a problem inherent in the system. What we have heard about the renewed lockdown in Leicester is that children who are not ill themselves are carrying the virus. If you look around, including France, there have been outbreaks at schools, and it has been found that the virus has been brought in in some cases by the children. Many schools at primary level employ support staff who tend to be older people returning to work after bringing up their own families, and so it is unfair on them to put them at risk. Nice to blame the unions, but they are there to stand up for their members. It would appear from evidence in other countries that have been far more successful than England in getting a grip on the virus that as soon as a outbreak is spotted by an efficient tracking system, then you lock down that local area within 48 hours. Hancock has admitted that they knew there was a problem 11 days ago and has only now started to take some action. Unfortunately the tracking system in England has been a failure, and the local public health officials have not received information that they needed. You need to act quickly to prevent the spread, something that is not happening with England with it having such a centralized system. Schools here have had a positive test one day and are shut the next. Maybe that is not always required, but better to shut the stable door before the horse has bolted.
GP surgeries have NEVER closed during the pandemic. So why would they get in touch - were you feeling lonely or undervalued? There was a dire shortage of PPE for several WEEKS at the beginning. SO surgeries had to take necessary precautions on appointments (unless you wanted a GP waiting room to be as dangerous as a care home.). Any GP who suffered SUSPECTED symptoms had to self-isolate for 2 weeks - there being NO testing available. That didn't help. It isn't just the GP's who need PPE -all the surgery staff do. It wasn't available. If you think a face to face consultation in the current climate is virtually risk-free than I am relieved you are not my GP. There has been a significant increase in telephone and 'facetime' type consultations, but of course not everyone has access to those facilities. If you think GP's do very little, then I suggest you take the trouble to find out exactly what they do have to do. One example. How much mail do you think a GP has to read EACH DAY - letters from hospitals,pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, DVLA, police, funeral directors. I could go on. You don't see that when you rock up for a 10 minute consultation. When do you think they do this reading ? In their lunchtimes, before the surgery starts (typically 7am) after surgery finishes (typically 7pm). Most GP's are exhausted each and every day, and are genuinely frightened that because they are tired they will make mistakes, which can be life threatening. What else do they do, that you never see ? How long have you got ? Why is it like this ? I could tell you, and it would take quite a while, but I suggest you ask our wonderful know it all friend - he has the answer to everything. A total lack of investment in GP training as our population ages and the problems become exponentially more complex is only the start. The govt is always saying they will deliver more GPs'. It takes 10 years to produce a GP from a standing start. Factor that into their empty promises. Who do you think trains GP's ?. Why, GP's of course. When do they do that - whilst they are working of course. But please, please don't EVER suggest that GPs' are taking it easy. You demean yourself, as well as insulting the profession.
I will confess SH. that you are partly right in saying that figures aren't everything. Taking the short example of Uruguay, which is seen as an exemplary country in its fight against Corona. They used their natural advantages in that the country has no direct connection with Europe - all visitors go via Argentina or Brazil - so all they had to do was seal themselves off. Vietnam used a military solution and South Korea a high tech one based on IT infrastructure. But they all used their existing advantages - why didn't Britain ? It must have been easier to seal off an island than it is for Germany with 9 land borders. Yet despite all the Brexiteer talk of 'taking back control over borders' this is precisely what didn't happen - in fact EU countries were far quicker in doing this. Germany had closed its land borders at a time when Britain was still receiving hundreds of flights at Heathrow without the hint of controls. You may also be right in suggesting that this Coronacrisis has some connection to Brexit - how sick does it all seem now ? A large part of the Brexit argument rested on Britain being able to open itself up to the rest of the World - free trade deals with countries like China, India, the USA, Brazil etc. the very countries which are, or have been most involved in the Coronacrisis - would you like to be reliant on free trade with those countries now ? I agree that it is not necessarily countries, or governments, which are on trial here - but rather an entire global economic system. Anybody can see looking at the main shipping routes that China dominates World trade flows in all directions - but it is also a country which has a history of epidemics - and where people, capital, and trade become global then diseases will also become so. That a pandemic would arrive on the wave of such Worldwide free market conditions was, more or less, inevitable. Yet the free market has no inbuilt solution for this and so the state has to step in and regain control over the economy. This is harder for countries like the USA and the UK to do simply because they are, ideologically, more influenced by the neo liberal free market mindset than some other countries. What is on trial here is an ideology - namely unrestrained global capitalism where the influence of the state has been forced to the sidelines - but suddenly people are realizing that this ideology cannot save them in time of need.
