A timeline of the UKs response to this pandemic leaves a lot to be desired...

No chance

 

No way will any restrictions be lifted on Thursday. I reckon another review will be announced in 2/3 weeks time. This weeks new infection and death figures will be all over the place because of the bank holiday so not true pattern can be established.
Think we’ll watch closely how Italy and Spain go about things and how it turns out for them.

 

Spain and Italy, despite passing peak deaths 17 days ago, are still having 500 deaths a day. The slope on the way down is a gradual one compared to the one on the way up. Given we're 2 weeks or so behind them I wouldn't want to see any removal of restrictions any time soon.

Issue is the govt bean counters might be pressing for something different....

 

Obviously there's a lot of speculation, but I heard somebody mention 18 months to 2 years, after factoring in the logistics of mass production, distribution, etc.

Given the time it's taking to get PPE to NHS staff, I can well believe we're a long way off getting a vaccine out in any significant volumes.

 

Spain announced another 517 deaths today. Still seems very high when they are sending some people back to work today. Our own government will be wanting to see if it works for Spain or they see another spike in deaths and cases.

 

I read that in the past i.e. before CV19, pharma companies weren't so much bothered about developing vaccines because there wasn't much in it for them. I'd have thought that now, profitability wouldn't be an issue.

 

If the daily mortality rate rises anymore between now and Thursday they may well tighten up the lockdown even further.

 

Macron's due to address the nation (France, that is - it'd be a bit presumptuous to address any other nation) at 20:00 local time (19:00 UK time) tonight. Someone close to the president has suggested the extension of the confinement period due to be announced then may be as much as an extra month.

https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...re-ligne-face-a-l-opinion_6036391_823448.html

 

I just wish they’d be honest in communicating this, at least then it might quieten those people still clinging to the idea we are going to stay in lockdown for 18 months.

 

Need to look at the number of new daily cases to judge if the infection rate is low enough to open restrictions, not deaths, the people dying today caught it 3 weeks ago or more, new cases caught it last week.

 

The uk government has tried to keep the economy going, prevent the NHS collapsing, and save as many lives as possible while hoping that the virus wont reappear as strongly after the shut down is lifted due to some success of herd immunity.
I am not a tory but this is a plan following scietntist advice, what would labour or anyone else have done differently because decisions are easy with hindsight ?

No one has blood on their hands dealing with this virus, people have done what they could in impossible circumstances.

 

I think decisions made early doors to play down the virus were made for political reasons , Cummings alleged comments regarding herd immunity, protecting the economy at all costs and not being bothered about a few old people dieing , resonated with those making the decisions . It soon became apparent that this wasn’t resonating with the vast majority of the public and they had to change tack and have been playing catch up ever since . The narrative has started to change though , small digs at staff not using PPE properly to cover the distribution **** up , Hancock implying front line staff who had caught the virus and died , might not have got it at work , shifting the blame back onto infected staff . Anyone who thinks these people will change after the crisis are deluded , we all know who is going to get hammered in the pocket to pay for the crisis and it isn’t millionaire Tory backers

 

What about lack of PPE for health workers? There's no excuse for not having this in place earlier.

I think your post is pretty generous. Questions need to be asked once this is all over.

 

We still don't know what the right course of action is. We're barley at the start of this. But the lack of protection for NHS is criminal. That is required whatever method of tackling this is taken.

 

Does anyone think thay the goverment is cutting back on PPE to save on cost or that it is potentially a manufacture and distribution issue as we now have to manufacture millions more item than ever required before or i forgot we should have pre planned for this global unknown pandemic in advance.

Im sorry but hindsight is a poor way of generating criticism or blame.

 

We should have preplanned for the epidemic in advance. Of course we should. I can't think of a single argument why we shouldn't or couldn't. There have been epidemics throughout human history. We've had many near misses this century, Sars, ebola etc, all of which would have required protective equipment for medical professionals. Every epidemic would. There is no use of hindsight here at all just a bewildering lack of foresight from those in charge.

 

Lack of hindsight from every world leader not just us.

 

Not sure about that. Billions of people the world over are vaccinated to protect them from many illness and disease. Thought that would be quite lucrative.

 

A lot of our equipment at hospital has a 'use by" date so perhaps this could be a factor with stock-piling?