We are having to limit our freedoms to save the NHS. The problem is Johnson and his party have made no effort to do so themselves over the last 10 years. To make it worse they increase the workload by not testing those NHS staff having to isolate unaware if they actually have the virus. This in addition to the lack of PPE and ventilators which also increases the stress for NHS staff. This suggests that the biggest threat is not the public but the Conservatives.
I note that the deputy medical director is not so practiced at lying like Johnson because she indicated that we could remain under restrictions for three to six months or even longer. The current three weeks is only a test to see its impact before they decide how longer to extend it. Johnson indicates that the three weeks were to access if the current limits could be reduced.
The fact he is also sending a letter to every household is not just only a waste of money but puts the Royal Mail staff at increased risk. He could just do one of his now presidential tv appearances to say what he would have put in the letter.
I know it means him combing his hair but it would save several millions in postage which could go on the missing equipment.

My theory is some people are so stupid and self-centred, it'll take an official letter from the PM to finally get through to them. I wonder if he'll be sending one to Johnson Snr after his defiant "I'll still go to the pub", despite the nation being advised not to the day before? How many more people like old Stan will be dismissing this as 'just some bug that's going round'?

Nail on head there King Street.
Everyone thinks that they know best and especially the older generation.

The more spritely ones value their independence above al else and dont want to be "confined to barracks".
There ought to be an advert showing a grandparent giving the virus to their Grand Children or something. I know this sounds to be in extremely bad taste but, they either dont understand or, choose not to understand the severity of the thing.
This really isn't about how it affects you or me etc, it's about the other people who we may come in to contact with or the people that we meet, may com into contact with that will spread the virus and some wont recover.

My Mum and Dad were quite blase about it until only recently. Offering to look after our 3 year old so I could get some work done at home, and inviting us all round for dinner! It wasn't until I explained the severity that they realised how bad an idea all that was.

It tickled me when I read this. We aren't in our 70's but mid to late 60's. My wife, who is a very intelligent person couldn't understand why none of ours are able to come round for Easter Sunday and to be fair, I had a good think about it.

Reckon as you get older, change of any kind is hard to take in, especially as regards family.

Our daughter and two lads patiently explain why but grandchildren and grandparents relationships don't do logic, it's just sheer emotion.

I’ve heard that in these times of National Emergency that Lyin Boris is going to order that all private company and stock market dividends are to be diverted into NHS funds to purchase PPE and ventilators.

Any objections?

We’re all in this together

My Mum signs every phone call off with "so, we don't when we're going to see you all, do we?", and I reply, "you do, in about 12 weeks".

One of the problems is that people struggle to deal with the concept of risk, when it comes to very rare events. And also people's complacency increases with time. So bad events come as a real shock, eg home destroyed by floods or being diagnosed with a critical illness, even though maybe you've known for years you lived in an area prone to floods or have had lifestyle factors (obesity/smoking/drinking) that predisposed you to higher risk. The longer people live with risk, the less they worry about it, so its a shock when something happens. When there's been a terrorist attack, people are nervous in train stations and stadiums and taking the tube for a few weeks, but then gradually forget about it.

With the risk of pandemic, we've been fortunate that some of the feared outbreaks in the past never materialised. SARS got contained in the far East. Avian flu didn't develop in to human-to-human transmission. Swine flu did hit us, but had a low fatality rate so was just a "bad flu year". Ebola got contained in Africa. So I guess it was easy to think when we started hearing about Covid-19 in China, that this was going to be SARS again, something that got contained after a few months and never impacted us. Nobody has been through a serious pandemic before as we haven't had anything on this scale since Spanish flu a century ago, so nobody had any fears lurking in the memory. I bet if Covid had come about say in the 1970s or 1980s, the older generation then would have been the ones who were taking no chances, after having memories of what happened with Spanish flu when they were young, and the "boomers" who would have been in their 30s or 40s would have been more dismissive then, just like they are now they are in their 70s or 80s.

Another thing that has made it harder to get the message across is the way politics has been run in recent years, with a "counter-intellectual" culture being encouraged where "experts" are dismissed as being part of some kind of establishment elite with an agenda to undermine Britain, and "the man on the street" knowing best. So when scientists and health professionals started saying this is a big deal, a lot of peoples default reaction was to say "what nonsense, you're not going to stop me going out for a pint".

I think most people - including the older generation - thought until a week or so ago, yes this is a new virus and I will probably get it but it will be a few days in bed then recover, just like getting a normal virus. If we had locked down earlier, most people would have thought this is a load of fuss over nothing and not really complied. The rising death count is probably making people realise that this is a real problem and so compliance will improve as people understand it is necessary.

trolling again....

It must be cheaper to test everybody than the cost to an already failing economy. We are already heading for a recession and after our sacrifice to save the NHS next we will have the austerity to save the failing economy made worse by our withdrawal from the EC.

I am interested to know what purpose testing will serve?

Remainers never waste an opportunity - it must be so difficult to be so bitter?

Was thinking exactly the same, pesky democracy.....

I'm baffled by the rising tide of "don't politicise this" nonsense; the Government, which has been in power for 10 years, is responsible for our readiness to deal with events like this, and what we do when it actually happens - and they have demonstrably failed on both, by any measure. Our NHS is woefully understaffed and underfunded, and we have the lowest number of ICU beds in history per head of population - amongst the lowest in the developed world. We have insufficient equipment and facilities to deal with a public health emergency, and insufficient medical professionals to look after us. We don't have enough police officers to manage our behaviour during a lockdown, and to top it off, our benefit system is so depleted that suddenly, middle class people who realise it should be a safety net and are turning to it for help, are up in arms because it is criminally slow, inefficient and doesn't provide enough for the basics of life.

This is 100% political, and the servile bootlicking of many people is what will guarantee that nothing much will change when it's all over.

Do tell us, oh wise one, how we should have prepared for a global pandemic?

Italy coping so much better, like France, Russia...... oh, hang on.

Perhaps if the Tories stuffed the NHS by having a pay freeze for 7 years ? and removing the bursaries which encouraged more people to come into the profession, there may have been a stronger workforce to START to deal with the pandemic.
Of course, no country in the world can be fully prepared for anything like this and for some countries, notably India, the thing hasn't yet begun to unfold.

However, there is absolutely no doubt that we could have been BETTER prepared.

I'm pleased that we are not the USA though, they still seem to be battling as to whether to have a lockdown in their major cities, which just isn't going to end well and I believe that given our starting position, there isn't much more that the government could be doing at this stage.

The worst aspect of all of this is that nobody and I mean nobody has any idea about an end game, which is just scary.
It may be something that we have to "live" with for many years to come.

Maybe by not hollowing out the NHS, closing 10's of 000's of beds, and leaving us with a chronic staffing crisis of Dr's and nurses; the same MP's standing on their doorsteps dishonestly 'clapping' NHS workers, stood in parliament not too long ago, cheering because they won a vote to cap their pay.

Of course it's fu**ing political, and no amount of obfuscation by Boris Johnson and his weird cabal of advisers can change the fact that the Tories have been in power for 10 years; this is on them.

so THE GOVERNMENT ELECTED BY THE MAJORITY caused a GLOBAL PANDEMIC? So, it is OUR fault. I can't wait until you and wrencat find the next thing to blame on politics.

That's not in any way what I said; which of course you know very well, but since you have nothing of any value to say on any subject, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I bet you blamed Labour for the 2008 financial crash.

you mean, apart from THAT.....?

By missing all the important words, you've changed the meaning of what I said.

"Maybe by not hollowing out the NHS, closing 10's of 000's of beds, and leaving us with a chronic staffing crisis of Dr's and nurses; the same MP's standing on their doorsteps dishonestly 'clapping' NHS workers, stood in parliament not too long ago, cheering because they won a vote to cap their pay.

Of course it's fu**ing political, and no amount of obfuscation by Boris Johnson and his weird cabal of advisers can change the fact that the Tories have been in power for 10 years; this is on them."

So - everything that goes BEFORE the words you quoted is ON THEM; COVID-19 itself is not, unless Dominic Cummings created it in his shed as a eugenics project with Toby Young, for lols.

backtrack much quicker and you'll invoke a fluxe capacitor...

You seem to be suggesting that the government should have planned for a once in generation epidemic - The US has the most advanced medical system in the world and it can't cope. You are angry but you need to be more realistic about what should have been in place. Why would you have thousands of respirators that in normal circumstances would not get used, or millions of items of PPE that again wouldn't get used - surely that would have been a criminal waste of money that could have been invested more effectively?

Where this country is truly great is in its innovation - so the work by the Mercedes F1 team is an example of why this country is so special - perhaps just once you will celebrate something truly remarkable that has happened here.

We have a low number of ICU beds but not massively out to what we normally use - why would we have thousands of unused ICU beds just in case - it madness - yes for three months out decades of use it might not be enough but you well know you design systems around the norm with an element of flex not around a doomsday scenario.

It seems to me this is a great opportunity to attack the Tories and by God you haven't wasted that opportunity.

The Conservative Party achieved a parliamentary majority but a majority of voters did not vote for a Conservative candidate. The last time they did was in 1931 - although it has been close a couple of times since.

I think that the electorate does bear responsibility for how it votes, for good or ill.

Obviously, we didn’t vote for a global pandemic but we did choose the people to lead us through it or anything similar.