Coronavirus (Covid-19) Discussion
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Much is reported about deaths in hospitals in the UK, and the British media has just picked up on residential care home deaths in France today.
Sadly we have had our first reports of care home deaths in our work today. The care home staff work tirelessly, putting themselves and others at risk because they do not have any PPE. We have been screaming at Government to get supplies to care providers for weeks. There is a significantly greater risk of deaths within the care home population than there is in hospitals. It just isn't being reported here yet.
I need PPE and I'm just not getting it. I've signed up to volunteer in my local area too, and will be in higher risk areas. We need those supplies yesterday!!
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@den1mhead thank you, but not posted for acknowledgement, just to highlight that there are 10s of 1000s of staff and volunteers that don't have access to the supplies the health services do.
Its easy to criticise thos in office, but honestly, regardless of political ideology, they have a thankless task at the moment, and for the first time in my living memory parties in the UK are pulling together.
I am proud to live in a democracy, and my role in my LA is to have oversight of international and domestic legislation with regard to deprivation of liberty. Any signatory to the ECtHR is bound not to breach the convention unless it does so in accordance with an instrument of law. The UK could use legislation to control infectious disease - if you were suspected of diagnosed as infected, but not the non-contagious general population. Governments had to get that legislation written and through Parliament. The Coronavirus Bill was 329 pages written in a few days. There are also lots of separate regulations. The British people should read them. They are Orwellian!
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In the US there was a huge push for biothreat regulation in 2001 after the anthrax attacks. They had a biomonitoring and bioresponse program for about a decade. After that, it was called a boondoggle and was dismantled with extreme prejudice. Should be interesting if any of the politicians that called it a waste of time are eating crow right now.
Dr. Fauci was one of the people that screamed an yelled that it was necessary, but it fell upon deaf ears. -
If you guys have time you should look at how Governor Larry Hogan has been handling the Covid19 thing. He's been really proactive and had intelligent plans to control the spread. Even though MD has a pretty decent sized population, we don't have that many infections or deaths.
I'm proud to have voted for him twice. -
I recently read The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis. Although his book maybe biased given his political views, it outlined many of the key ranks of the U.S. national departments and programs that were dismantled by the change of administration. It could have played in part in the lack of coordination/direction in response to this crisis.
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Yeah, I get quite frustrated with Americans who complain about Trump and his mishandling of the situation. All the Western democracies have screwed up. If the president in the US was a Merkel or a Macron, things would basically be just as bad.
I'm sorry I find this statement very inappropriate.
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Let's try not to politicise these discussions or knock individual leaders. We will all have some views as to how they are handling the situation, but I would not wish the enormity of what they are having to do, on my own worst enemy.
I said to a friend yesterday, this is as big as WW2, he replied, "It's bigger, at least in a war there is always the possibility of a negotiated settlement, we do not have that with Covid-19".
When we are through this, then is the time to analyze how effective our leaders were and make the appropriate actions, oh and for pity's sake, learn from the lessons…
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Yeah, I get quite frustrated with Americans who complain about Trump and his mishandling of the situation. All the Western democracies have screwed up. If the president in the US was a Merkel or a Macron, things would basically be just as bad.
I'm sorry I find this statement very inappropriate.
Why?
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@JDelage There is a tendency on this thread to compare the reactions and developments of different countries to one another. While this is natural given the context of the situation, it can also lead to criticism, support, vilification or other judgemental comments on the politics of the situation or the performance of individual leaders. I myself have been guilty of this earlier and @Giles pointed it out. He has asked that we avoid this kind of thing in the post @ROman quoted. It is an eminently sensible suggestion by Giles and one which I suggest we all stick to.
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I don't recall saying anything that was political in nature, much less offensive
Nobody said you did. However Giles has asked that we refrain from commenting on specific leaders and their performances in a post only a short way back.
The point is that our subjective assessments of individual leaders or countries performances are likely to be contentious to the degree that it will negatively affect the discourse here. Giles has rightly asked that we refrain from doing so. I suggest we oblige.
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Here here. The issue globally is not one of Governmental action or inaction. Regardless of political ideology, on the ground it has become a simple base level economic issue - demand is outstripping supply. Food and medicine are coming back on line in the supply chain, but public services are struggling to get medical supplies and PPE. that transcends continents, let alone individual countries.
I think it is an incredible show of solidarity at this time that companies such as British Aerospace, Formula 1, Dyson et al are using their vast expertise and resources to design brand new equipment never seen before, that retired professionals are coming back into the workforce to help their colleagues, and that 100s of thousands of the public are volunteering their time to help others. That it what we should focus on. Stay positive and stay well all. I'll stop short at saying peace and love.. Doh
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The issue 'now'. I work for Local Government. I see it in action in a way that the media is unaware of, or at least does not report. I'm not aware of a democratic country in the world whose leadership has has to deal with an issue this big since 1918, outside of wartime.
We are all having to learn and adapt incredibly quickly, that includes the leaders of Government. I am f'ing glad I live in a democracy that takes consideration of the rights of its citizens before taking drastic measures. The world may be a different place after this passes, but I wouldn't wish for it to be a totalitarian global state where the tiny privelaged few dictate to the masses any more than is completely necessary.
