The UK response to Covid-19 [MOD WARNING 1ST POST]

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Interesting article by Professor Tomlinson at Queens University Belfast on why the RoI's death rate is 66% that of NI. From the article:

The main differences between the North and the Republic emerged in the first three weeks of March as the British and Irish governments took different approaches to the cancellation of mass gatherings, the closure of schools and universities, and other lockdown measures.

The differences, particularly over school closures, caused political friction in the North but the key policy difference was revealed on March 12th when the British announced the “contain phase” was over and that testing for the Covid-19 infection would henceforth be largely confined to hospital admissions. Contact tracing ceased. Policy became focused almost entirely on managing hospital and intensive care unit capacity.

Meanwhile the Irish Government moved in the opposite direction. From early March testing and contact tracing were expanded through dozens of community-based facilities and by the end of March the Republic was testing at more than twice the British rate. Chief Medical Officer Dr Holohan repeatedly emphasised the priority of saving lives.

And:

The graphs show death rates per million of population for the North and the Republic and also hospital-based deaths. In both examples the Republic’s death rate is two-thirds that in the North.

This is the clearest evidence we have that the different approaches to tackling the Covid-19 outbreak are resulting in different outcomes. This may change as the pandemic progresses but for now it is reasonable to assume that the North’s higher death rates result from lower rates of testing, the lack of contact tracing and the slower application of lockdown measures compared with the Republic.

blinding wrote: »

Republic of Ireland = tiny little country , are the demographic of the republic of Ireland the same as Britain. Many people in Britain had small families or no children ( could be said that this is a big mistake particularly in the present situation )

Many more big Cities including London with Public Transport that was perfect for spreading Covid-19.

Comparing the Republic of Ireland to Britain re; Covid -19 is an absolutely pointless exercise.

We will really have to wait until down the line when Countries have collected all the statistics to see what the overall increase in deaths is.

People are jumping to all sorts of conclusions on very questionable statistics from very many different Countries . Of course this does not suit the Anti-British Agenda on this Thread by some Posters.

How about this comparison posted by Professor Moriarty a few days ago?

Very similar demographics and population stats, population density etc.

The difference? They are following UK guidelines.

As for the rest of the nonsense posting about bad Irish politicians down the years...total deflection in a thread titled the UK response to Covid-19.

blinding wrote: »

How come ye are so fragile when yer’e jumped to conclusions are challenged ? ?

The UK literally release figures that are known to be bullsh!t. They have been waffling for weeks now about testing. And day after day after day they double down on some rubbish once they get exposed.

Seriously, when are you allowed criticise them without someone reporting to a "But sure Ireland..."?

blinding wrote: »

I just come in here occasionally to play Devils Advocate and stop ye Howling at the British Moon.

Why are ye so concerned about what is going on in a Foreign Country Anyhow ? ?

A previous thread from blinding:

"How come we don't get Irish Patriots like this man any more": a thread lauding Nigel Farage

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=104636083

There definitely seems to be a tendency for Brexit advocates to be determined to defend the UK's covid 19 response to the hilt for some reason.

blinding wrote: »

Well , It goes to show that going down the Globalist Route doesn’t work for Everything. Imagine a Country the Size of Britain not being able to Produce its own Medical Grade PPE when Needed. Globalisation = What a catastrophic failure there !:eek::eek:

How is it everyone elses fault that the UK couldn't stock up on PPE?

Who was ever stopping them manufacturing it in the UK?

The should have admitted that there was not enough masks for health workers and the General Public = Not good.

What? Is that a criticism of the UK govt?

All tests should have been kept for health workers or those in Hospital = Pretty much what happened but there was not enough test for even that.

So you're saying that they are talking through their hoop re testing capacity?

Pretty stupid to expect health workers to drive long distances for test = That is dumb.

Another criticism of the UK govt?

Huge Failures from Globalisation when a Crisis Came. That should never be allowed to happen again ! ! !

NONE of the four criticisms above are the fault of big bad "globalisation". NONE!

Must try better I guess.

The British Government apologised this morning for lack of testing having promised that essential workers that there would be no problem getting tested from 6.00am today. By 9.00 you just got a message saying that tests were unavailable Clusterfúck.

CelticRambler wrote: »

This is the aspect of the British response that had me most puzzled in the beginning: all the "starting from scratch" as if there was no way anyone could have foreseen this. A couple of decades ago, I'd have considered the likes of Patrick Valence and Chris Whitty as my peers, and expected them to have run through the same range of "what if" scenarios that I prepared for, ranging from the "pretty likely" to the "once every hundred years" events.

Now, it looks like nobody in the UK (or the US) has done anything in the way of planning, despite the several warnings issued by various bodies over the course of the last two decades. Instead of "what if...?" planning, it's all "WTF?" crisis meetings, followed by spin, spin, spin. And I see that Hancock, on Radio 4 this morning, pre-empted the latest débacle citing the phrase "many a slip between cup and lip" :rolleyes:

As a layman, i could accept a little bit of caught a bit unawares early on, but then you'd expect at least the infrastructure was in place that you could start to quickly catch up. I dont see that in UK at all, they still cant seem to catch up.

Like listening to Hancock on the contact tracing the other day, talking about thousands of workers and an app of some sort. But they all have to be trained, he said, and gave no indication when it would be ready to be rolled out. Could be weeks, maybe months even. They claim they were doing great contact tracing back in march, but still feels as if they are really only starting from scratch on it now. And we're nearly 3 months into this thing.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

A previous thread from blinding:

"How come we don't get Irish Patriots like this man any more": a thread lauding Nigel Farage

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=104636083

There definitely seems to be a tendency for Brexit advocates to be determined to defend the UK's covid 19 response to the hilt for some reason.

Gammon is a hell of a drug.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

This tweet seems to have it spot on:

https://twitter.com/Suewilson91/status/1253385169127563272

---

This is what I thought myself. Is there anything missing?

Up to the scientists to clarify that conundrum i think, unless they're perfectly happy for the politicians to continue using them as shields.

But fair to say i think that testing and tracing probably isnt a priority if your plan is to let the virus run pretty much unhindered through the vast majority of your population.

theological wrote: »

UK death figures for today are 684. The figure in Wales was higher today because there were corrections for previous days in the data. It seems to be moving very much in the right direction.

RobMc59 wrote: »

Encouraging news,along with the UK developed vaccine going into testing.

Nothing to say about the ridiculous testing debacle there lads?

I am shocked!

Joe_ Public wrote: »

As a layman, i could accept a little bit of caught a bit unawares early on ...

And as a non-layman (in this regard), I would consider it professional negligence. Wherever I go to work (private sector), on Day 1 of my contract I'm shown the "what if" arrangements. Usually it's a space filled with junk and a staff member who knows that the products/equipment are "somewhere". And yeah, we're always caught "unawares" by the unexpected, but the infrastructure is there and can be brought into service within an hour or less. In fifteen years of working in France, I've only ever had to push that button once, but even the non-profit organisation where I have been/will be again working is including "what-if ..?" contingencies into the new facility currently being built.

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Like listening to Hancock on the contact tracing the other day, talking about thousands of workers and an app of some sort. But they all have to be trained, he said, and gave no indication when it would be ready to be rolled out.

Recruited and trained ... just like all the customs clearance agents needed for Brexit! How's that going, do we know ... :pac:

At this stage, I think the UK government's Covid-19 strategy is pure BS-number-slinging - the same as the £350m/week Brexit Bus, same as the 50000 new nurses electioneering. I genuinely believe the current crop of ministers haven't the faintest idea of what to do or how to do it, because Covid-19 is neither Brexit nor an election.

The whole point of carrying out tests (any kind of test) is to guide future action. So what do they propose after they've tested people? I asked this question here a month ago, and I'm still no clearer ... which ironically is probably the only valid response, because there is no logic to carrying out 20000 or 50000 or 100000 tests a day now. Given the biological uncertainty surrounding the results (regardless of whether they're antigen or antibody tests), there's no clear action that can be taken - not unless the country is divided up into Hunger-Games-like divisions, with no communication between one and the other.

But hey, guess what? That works - see Greece: a model of effective disease control (much more efficient and effective than Germany's response).

Aegir wrote: »

I thought Matt Hancock made it very clear.

I thought that mantra was dropped when May wore it out.

As regards testing i note they have 28 drive through centres and are talking about increasing that to 100 by sometime next month.

Read this about South Korea in yesterday's Guardian - "...quickly developed the capacity to test an average of 12,000 people - and up to 20,000 - a day at HUNDREDS of drive through and walk in testing centres."

Other places they have ability to actually go out and collect samples. Not in uk, it seems.

28,000 tests is todays figure. That is their capacity as regards yesterday.