Corona Virus Concerns
Comments
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I think every Nation will have it’s decision making and politicians criticised, quite rightly, and I am all for giving praise as well where it’s due. But I never lose track of the fact that they have put themselves forward for these positions of responsibility and make all sorts of promises in the hope of garnering public votes, and being re elected to highly paid posts, and very lucrative pensions and post political careers.
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I agree, David. I think all of us who have loved ones in care homes feel the same way and the more we find out the harder it is to take. There have been some awful mistakes made over the course of this crisis.
I seem to remember reading right back at the start of this that some sort of "exercise" had been carried out 4 or 5 years back to see how/if the NHS would cope with just this sort of crisis. The conclusion then - that it simply wouldn't - was pretty much ignored.
(Perhaps someone might confirm that my memory of that exercise is correct?)
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sorry i think this is the most factual sentence
but it’s still appallingly bad for such a wealthy advanced country, and has to point at just how under prepared, ill equipped and almost blasé our successive Governments have been for a long while. Too little targeted very poorly indeed.
and the most important word SUCCESSIVE
cant lay all the blame at Boris's door, and i dread to think what the consequences would have been if a certain other PM had been in the chair.
Already it is starting to shine thru just how destructive opposition parties can be when it comes to scoring political points, look at how our poor children are being used as pawns.
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I have tried to do a lot of reading, from a variety of sources, and it’s just so sad, and at the same time so disturbing that what seems to a lay person just common sense, has just been disregarded until it’s too late. And as you say, not just elderly in care homes, there are a lot of younger persons as well. I sincerely hope your daughter remains safe and well AD.
The Care crisis has been looming for years. Not particularly those in homes, although some aren’t well run. Many elderly folks left out in the community, with no family support, have become reliant upon big profit driven care providers who charge huge amounts for often substandard care. Leaves those dependant on yo yo elastic, in and out of hospitals, often for weeks and weeks at a time. Needs a root and branch cross party commitment to get things back on track for the future. Shouldn’t be used as a political weapon, nor should the NHS.
Edit, oh I was careful indeed to use the word successive. Decades of poorly applied policies, tinkering etc.... That’s why it needs a Cross Party commitment in the future.
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I seem to remember reading right back at the start of this that some sort of "exercise" had been carried out 4 or 5 years back to see how/if the NHS would cope with just this sort of crisis. The conclusion then - that it simply wouldn't - was pretty much ignored.
I think you are correct, but you can track back to the Gordon Brown era , or even the Gony Blair era when similar exercises were carried out with pretty much the same result
Non of the parties come up particularly smelling of roses.
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That last sentence I do agree with Rufs - definitely not trying to make a party political point. But we are where we are and, since you mention Boris, for years he manipulated the political landscape to reach his present position and is now showing how absolutely inept his leadership is - why else is he being hidden away from the daily briefings?
But I'm curious about what you mean with your earlier reference to our children being used as pawns by "destructive opposition parties"?
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Frankly, our political system stinks at the moment. Outdated, long winded, jobs given to those who are likely to squeak “yes” when the top dog barks, rather than anything else. Not helped by a vindictive partisan press. The term Right Honourable is a total contradiction.
However, at least they aren’t Trump or Bolsonaro.😱
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Edit, oh I was careful indeed to use the word successive. Decades of poorly applied policies, tinkering etc.... That’s why it needs a Cross Party commitment in the future
Understand... I have a daughter, school teacher, currently working voluntary in a care home, so she sees a broad spectrum of public life, both in schools and care homes
The 2 care home she is working in at present have had non of the problems that the press seem to highlight, but fail to highlight the good.
No covid-19, no shortage of PPE, some staff living in just now to make it more safe, and i am sure there are more of these up and down the country, so lets not tar all care homes with the same brush
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So today all of our concerns about the Government allowing people to now travel as far as they please has come home to roost. Local police say they have identified vehicles from all over the country and report roads into Devon are gridlocked. Beach car parks closed by 1pm as they were full. Beaches packed. Woolacombe car parks had to close so cars were parked all around the village. The police/council have issued 100s of 70pound parking fines. Us? Well we are too worried to venture out because of all this so back to lockdown for us. So much for common sense Boris!
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But I'm curious about what you mean with your earlier reference to our children being used as pawns by "destructive opposition parties"?
look at the political wrangling going on just now, do we send our kids back to school, do we not send our kids back to school. And when you see in the press today certain leaders of certain unions simply making unopportune statements about how children conduct themselves on the health and safety front in an effort to prove a point that kids should not return to school it makes my blood boil.
What should be happening is that all teachers that are able should return to school now , have a brain storming session as to how they are going to cope with what is going to be a "new world" and implement the agreed measures, after all they are intellegent people, should not be too difficult to measure out 2 mtrs and provide had washing facilities, and maybe some staggered learning times, after all 21 countries within Europe now have children back in school, not rocket science.
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The majority of care homes have been Covid19 free, thankfully, but their residents are very vulnerable and the staff are doing a good job keeping them safe. Some homes had to take patients discharged from hospitals due to the pressure on beds, there were mistakes made and I think most people understand the panic situation if hospitals hadn't been able to cope.
My late Mum's care home, in a city centre has not had any outbreaks.
The back to school problem is very difficult for all concerned especially for vulnerable children where school is their refuge.
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M, my OH was part of a big exercise/investigation to see how UK would handle a variety of different emergency situations, post 2007 following the Terrorist Attacks in London. One was terrorism, another flooding response, he thinks Global Pandemic was 2008. A huge amount of money was allocated, equipment and resources purchased, a reserve of vital supplies was stockpiled. A lot of the equipment went into use with FB, Police Etc...... But the supplies of PPE etc.......only have a finite life span, suffer deterioration. And then the decisions are taken to save money, austerity becomes the new political mantra, stocks aren’t replaced.........and here we are in 2020. Not enough resources, some of it out of date, some actually gone missing, forced to wait weeks for substandard deliveries from somewhere like Turkey!
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Yes i agree this is terrible, we have a similar situation in Lee-on-the Solent and this is before we hit the bank holiday weekend.
Our local car parks have an abundance of camper vans/motor homes being used as outdoor kitchens for large gatherings, which if they are all co-habitating in one dwelling, must be a very big dwelling, social distancing is now a thing of the past. But, Boris did say that if we are not sensible and the R number starts to rise, he will not hesitate to re-enforce a lock down, perhaps he should do it before the BH weekend
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Unfortunately the note left for the new chancellor after the financial crash "there is no money" was true and the country has been run on a shoestring until recently. Then the new budget to spend, spend, spend came out just as the Covid crisis hit....we have been spending but not on the things intended. It's going to be tough.
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much worse than this, there was a world conference, i think in 2015, most countries had senior representatives at the meeting which was fronted by Bill Gates. The meeting was to discuss preventative methods to stop pandemics even happening, this meeting was held in light of the SARS outbreak i think in 2002. The upshot of the meeting was that millions of dollars needed to be invested immediatly to develop vacines to combat viruses such as Corona, all countries agreed that this should be started fortwith, did it, I dont think so, Bill Gates has said "and now the chickens have come home to roost".
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"But, Boris did say that if we are not sensible and the R number starts to rise, he will not hesitate to re-enforce a lock down, perhaps he should do it before the BH weekend"
I think that decision, to allow unlimited travel and exercise, was particularly ill thought out, especially since the BH was on the horizon. Don't you think it would have been better to allow limited travel, say within one's county of residence (there are surely enough ANPR cameras out there to enforce that) until after the BH weekend and then to re-assess the situation. The genie's out of the bottle now - do you really think Boris will risk reinforcing the lockdown now?
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It was so bad in Woolacombe with cars parked in every road that a bus couldn't get through. Police were called, hence the fines. If an ambulance or fire engine had been needed it couldn't have got through. Given the present circumstances it was unbelievable. Yes the government should have limited travel to one's own county. No social distancing. Just hoping we don't have another spike.
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Boris, for years he manipulated the political landscape to reach his present position and is now showing how absolutely inept his leadership is - why else is he being hidden away from the daily briefings?
dont necessarily agree.....dont live in london but he seemed to make a good job of being the Mayor i think for 2 sessions, even if he did some things that made him look like a baffoon
reading what is happening in london just now, i dont think the resident mayor is making a particularly good job, some are saying bring back Boris
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The neighbour who recently had a fall and broke her hip is still in hospital. They wanted to send her, after an operation on her hip, to a local care home run by the council which has seen residents die from the virus, albeit weeks ago. Her family point blank refused and contacted the local MP. She's coming home in a few days after certain home care equipment has been delivered and if her test comes back negative. Yes, they've just remembered to do a test.
They're still sending people to care homes.
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I fear that a good portion of the population would ignore another lockdown. Whatever the rationale in stopping the spread, there is an natural objection to being told what to do. These objections are commonplace around the globe but our 'neutral' BBC seems to be averse to doing global news.
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Are you a Hypocrite if you are a Politician who has in the last 8 years voted for austerity measures which included cutting resources to the NHS and reducing the wages of Nurses by giving them below inflationary increases, and ignoring the Social Care sector .. and go out on Thursday to clap for those same Nurses and Care workers?
This doesn't just mean Conservative ones but Lib Dems when they were in coalition and some Labour and Independents as well.
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Fair comment Wherenext. However, why don't they use up some of the 24 hrs news channel to tell us? They constantly refer to it being news from the UK and around the world. Instead, let's listen to an explanation of what R0 means for the gazillionth time, along with, wait for it, did you know that the world is heading for a recession?
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Just a short youtube video for the experts out there
https://www.facebook.com/spoofeduk/videos/qualified-facebook-expert/1860219294111215/
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Find this quite amusing, have 1 daughter lives in Spain and quite regularly I give her updates about what is happening in Spain gleaned from the BBC that she does not get on her local Spanish broadcasts. Dont always like they way the BBC reports things but they are very good at reporting on overseas events etc
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