How would you rate the UK's handling of this pandemic?

[Spectric]

The obvious is too little to late, missed opportunities and shambolic. Is this the fault of this government, no it would have been the same with any government because the way the system is setup.

First mistake, forgetting we are an island nation and not slamming the borders shut as soon as the virus was on the horizon.

Next mistake, being caught with your pants down. Having gone through other issues like F&M, birdflu etc etc the chances of a human virus were high and even Mr Gates pre warned the planet yet the stockpile of PPE for medical staff and carers was rock bottom, too much cost cutting or just ignorance?

Then too many cooks in the kitchen, complicated lines of command and not understandng the public. Result confusion, wrong advice and to little enforcement so the public become lost sheep. Then all the sillyness like if you are shielding then your partner can still go too work and bring the virus home.

Lastly there is a vacine and they drag there heels, to much talking and not enough action. Why not setup an NHS shop on Amazon and let the doctors and such order vacines on Amazon, their distribution and logistics are good and they would have been injecting the next day.

 

[pe2dave]

2/10?
See NZ for how it should be done

 

[Rorschach]

0/10 but unlikely for the same reasons as you.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Dreadful, completely inept.

The mess they made of the schools this week was shocking.

 

[PerryGunn]

I don't think there have been obvious 'right' answers to the pandemic, as evidenced by the number of different strategies that have been tried worldwide.

It's very easy to look at everything that's happend with the benefit of hindsight and say 'They should have done this', 'Couldn't they see that...' or 'If only they'd <insert option here> before <something>' but I don't think that any alternative UK government would have handled things any better given the information that they had at the time.

I'm just thankful that I'm not one of the people who had/have to make the decisions that try to walk the tightrope between too many deaths and severe economic damage.

 

[RobinBHM]

0/10 but unlikely for the same reasons as you.

No doubt you still think lockdowns aren't necessary.
And Covid is no worse than flu

 

[Rorschach]

No doubt you still think lockdowns aren't necessary.
And Covid is no worse than flu

Throwing out the line but the fish ain't biting today

 

[RobinBHM]

The obvious is too little to late, missed opportunities and shambolic. Is this the fault of this government, no it would have been the same with any government because the way the system is setup.

First mistake, forgetting we are an island nation and not slamming the borders shut as soon as the virus was on the horizon.

Next mistake, being caught with your pants down. Having gone through other issues like F&M, birdflu etc etc the chances of a human virus were high and even Mr Gates pre warned the planet yet the stockpile of PPE for medical staff and carers was rock bottom, too much cost cutting or just ignorance?

Then too many cooks in the kitchen, complicated lines of command and not understandng the public. Result confusion, wrong advice and to little enforcement so the public become lost sheep. Then all the sillyness like if you are shielding then your partner can still go too work and bring the virus home.

Lastly there is a vacine and they drag there heels, to much talking and not enough action. Why not setup an NHS shop on Amazon and let the doctors and such order vacines on Amazon, their distribution and logistics are good and they would have been injecting the next day.

The cabinet we have was formed specifically for their dedication to Brexit.
That has meant we have a government that is built for campaigning, not for governance.

On the negative side, the government have been slow to react, slow to go to lockdown resulting in much higher economic damage than necessary.

Countries that locked down very hard and very fast have recovered much faster.

However it's very very difficult to make comparisons, demographics, culture etc make big differences.

NZ for example shut its borders....but UK did not. However UK has major hub airports and London is a global financial centre...it would have been hard to shut borders.

 

[selectortone]

I was going to say that the situation is unprecedented and we should give the government some slack, but on the other hand there have been credible warnings for many years that some kind of pandemic was inevitable eventually, so there should have been some kind of contingency planning. Talk about headless chickens...

Watching Johnson, Hancock and especially that idiot (edit: that's not what I wrote) Education Secretary every night doesn't fill me with confidence. They all seem to be way behind the curve in decision making. It was obvious in mid December that a nationwide lockdown was necessary so why the vascillating?

As one of Rorschach's expendables (I'm 70), I just hope I can hang on and stay safe until I get my turn for the vaccine.

 

[billw]

I don't blame government, no matter who was in power from both a personal and political persuasion point of view they'd have messed it up. Singapore did it very well, but the whole country is about the size of Manchester and has no land borders.

 

[JandK]

Countries where the citizens have taken responsibility themselves and have done as asked have all been more successful as well

 

[Jacob]

Stats say UK 9th worst with 1,173 deaths per million.
Out of the 8 even worse, only Italy is comparable so you could say we are world 2nd worst
USA doing better, only 13th worst with 1,129 deaths per million
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

[TheUnicorn]

the fact that we have one of the highest deaths / cases per capita can only lead to the conclusion that we have done terribly. At every stage we've been too slow to act, if we had locked down quicker and harder, closed borders etc etc, we could have reduced the lengths of the lockdowns, reduced the amount of deaths and reduced the impact on the economy. Instead we get mixed messages, broken promises and and far too much self serving political decisions.

 

[Peter Sefton]

 

[billw]

the fact that we have one of the highest deaths / cases per capita can only lead to the conclusion that we have done terribly. At every stage we've been too slow to act, if we had locked down quicker and harder, closed borders etc etc, we could have reduced the lengths of the lockdowns, reduced the amount of deaths and reduced the impact on the economy. Instead we get mixed messages, broken promises and and far too much self serving political decisions.

On the positive side I note that there is nobody not wearing a mask in my local shops any more. In previous lockdowns there were always some swaggering around as if life was normal - now, none at all. Maybe the messaging has finally hit home.

It's a shame we're 10 months into this for me to say that.

 

[Rorschach]

As one of Rorschach's expendables (I'm 70), I just hope I can hang on and stay safe until I get my turn for the vaccine.

At 70 you wouldn't be on my list don't worry

 

[Stanleymonkey]

I don't think there have been obvious 'right' answers to the pandemic, as evidenced by the number of different strategies that have been tried worldwide.

It's very easy to look at everything that's happend with the benefit of hindsight and say 'They should have done this', 'Couldn't they see that...' or 'If only they'd <insert option here> before <something>' but I don't think that any alternative UK government would have handled things any better given the information that they had at the time.

I'm just thankful that I'm not one of the people who had/have to make the decisions that try to walk the tightrope between too many deaths and severe economic damage.

Yes it has been a difficult time for all countries and leaders, but our leader was the one who hugged people in hospitals and boasted about it before going on to nearly die from Covid. We have had u-turn after u-turn and I seem to remember Boris was too busy to attend most of the early COBRA meetings. He did have time to give an interview complaining how hard it was living on a paltry £150,000 salary whilst people in the UK queued up for foodbank parcels.

 

[powertools]

Ask yourself without the benefit of hindsight what would you have done differently.

 

[Billy_wizz]

the fact that we have one of the highest deaths / cases per capita can only lead to the conclusion that we have done terribly. At every stage we've been too slow to act, if we had locked down quicker and harder, closed borders etc etc, we could have reduced the lengths of the lockdowns, reduced the amount of deaths and reduced the impact on the economy. Instead we get mixed messages, broken promises and and far too much self serving political decisions.

The fact that we have such a high death toll might not be as bad as it looks many people on the list would have died even if they didn't have covid a friend who works in the NHS knows of several people with late stage terminal cancer who have made the list also there are many other factors that will effect the list including population age ethnic make up of the population some are more naturally resistant than others! A populations willingness to look after themselves pubs where opened so small family groups could go out for a quiet meal and help the economy but some took the piss and used it as an excuse to get trollied did the government do everything right of course not but to try and make out it's all there fault is equally ludicrous!