International News Covid-19 .....

Sarge said:
in contrast to NZ politicians, 'our' government minister for care Helen Whatley ,apparently sniggered and laughed on live tv earlier today, when questioned about 4000 CV19 deaths in UK care homes .... arent we lucky to have such a compassionate government looking after us?

www.kentonline.co.uk

Kent MP's car-crash interview with Piers Morgan

A Kent MP has been taken to task by Piers Morgan in a car-crash interview on Good Morning Britain.
www.kentonline.co.uk www.kentonline.co.uk
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Read. The. Article. "at points was accused - perhaps unfairly - of laughing by the outspoken co-host." So ........... it is about interpretation is it not rather than "fact" ?
 
If I heard the news correctly the other day, a very similar scenario to the current one was 'war gamed' by the UK government five years ago to see how we would cope (in the light of the SARS/MERS/bird flu situations that had arisen). The results were that it would be a human and economic disaster - mostly because of the lack of equipment, and also because of the reducing capacity of and increasing demands upon the NHS. The problem is of course that for any government of any colour, spending money to mitigate something that might not happen (at least in their period in power) is a pretty hard sell to the public - 'No, we aren't going to do X,Y or Z because we are busy preparing measures in case of an asteroid strike' isn't a vote winner. So I can see why a huge procurement exercise and expansion of the NHS wasn't done 'just in case'. This is not a party political point - I am not sure any UK government would have done much different...

What might well be a political point though (although who knows what any other party would *actually* have done) is that the contingency planning seems to have been completely ignored as well - with suppliers not lined up 'in case', logistics and distribution not worked out 'in case' etc, and no real strategy to turn to: not just for the government but for care homes, the prison service, etc. We seem to have started out with some bizarre 'herd immunity and let the old people die' approach, followed by panic and then the realisation that it wasn't somehow going to burn itself out. A bit of a shambles.

My feelings on the matter aren't helped by the fact that politicians *obviously* have the inevitable post-Corvid enquiry in mind when talking now - so they will simply not admit things haven't been perfectly handled (c.f. Patel's 'I am sorry if you feel that mistakes were made' rather than even 'I am sorry if mistakes were made'!) and we have constant references to 'ramping up' and 'putting things in place' etc - which is politician speak for 'no, we haven't done it yet'.

And (to be very political indeed) here is a link to the list of MPs who voted against scrapping the maximum 1% (!!!) annual pay rise for nurses, police, firefighters, prison officers etc just three years ago under May. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/full-list...ing-nurses-firefighters-fair-pay-rise-1628286
 
Essexyellows said:
Read. The. Article. "at points was accused - perhaps unfairly - of laughing by the outspoken co-host." So ........... it is about interpretation is it not rather than "fact" ?
Click to expand...
I thought Whatley was pretty feeble but she didn't smile (looked more like a stress reaction). Morgan came across as bullying which is unfortunate seeing as he was asking the kind of questions that need asking.
 
Essexyellows said:
PPE: We have loads sat on site in the loading bay............. middle management in their infinite wisdom gave the supplies staff 4 days off over Easter.
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OMFG. Don't they know there's a war on?

On another line, it would not hurt one bit if Piers Morgan could try to go one day without making an arse of himself; phone hacking troll.
 
Essexyellows said:
Read. The. Article. "at points was accused - perhaps unfairly - of laughing by the outspoken co-host." So ........... it is about interpretation is it not rather than "fact" ?
Click to expand...
Yes - having read the full article, she clearly wasn't laughing at the 4,00 deaths but rather the technical difficulties she was having. Morgan accused her of laughing at the deaths and to quote her in the article she says:

"“I’m not laughing. Please don’t suggest for a minute that I’m laughing because it does feel like you’re shouting at me.”

Sarge - you provide some thought provoking items on this forum but that accusation was lazy.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
If I heard the news correctly the other day, a very similar scenario to the current one was 'war gamed' by the UK government five years ago to see how we would cope (in the light of the SARS/MERS/bird flu situations that had arisen).
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Project Cygnus, old lad. Cygnus.


ZeroTheHero said:
.....the inevitable post-Corvid enquiry
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But the corvids will be here when humans are gone from the face of the earth; at least I hope so. It will be ample revenge for rooks to feast on the flesh of the last human, a breed who sold their parents, siblings and children for food in the Grainger Market.
 
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Wallop said:
Yes - having read the full article, she clearly wasn't laughing at the 4,00 deaths but rather the technical difficulties she was having. Morgan accused her of laughing at the deaths and to quote her in the article she says:

"“I’m not laughing. Please don’t suggest for a minute that I’m laughing because it does feel like you’re shouting at me.”

Sarge - you provide some thought provoking items on this forum but that accusation was lazy.
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I think you're getting me mixed up with someone else. I specifically said she didn't smile it looked like a stress reaction.
 
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QR said:
I think you're getting me mixed up with someone else. I specifically said she didn't smile it liked like a stress reaction.
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Correct! My lazy accusation was made to drive home the point of how damaging lazy accusations can be o_O
 
ZeroTheHero said:
The problem is of course that for any government of any colour, spending money to mitigate something that might not happen (at least in their period in power) is a pretty hard sell to the public - 'No, we aren't going to do X,Y or Z because we are busy preparing measures in case of an asteroid strike' isn't a vote winner. So I can see why a huge procurement exercise and expansion of the NHS wasn't done 'just in case'.
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Yet we do exactly that every year for our defence budget. It would be no different for us to pay a whole bunch of people to train on cutting edge medical equipment run constant exercises, go round the world teaching others, etc etc. We just chose to do it for the military because we are more scared of the ideology of other people than we are of health threats.
I’m sure that it would not be easy to get past the populace, but there is definitely an existing precedent with military.
 
Essexyellows said:
Meanwhile... in the real world that isn`t the microcosm that is twatter.
An acute East Midlands hospital trust.......
Up to midnight 13th April.
Confirmed inpatients: 201
Discharged: 231
Deceased: 115

We still have ventilated bed capacity.

PPE: We have loads sat on site in the loading bay............. middle management in their infinite wisdom gave the supplies staff 4 days off over Easter. The last mile matters?? Shall we blame the Government for that? Pretty sure some of the knobs on here will...................... lets tweet that to Dan feckin Walker eh?

It is not as simple as some folk seem to think...
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Presumably these are the most serious cases as they are people unable to "pull through" at home or referred from other wards?

But it does seem that once you are in the acute intake, the odds aren't good as 21% are deceased, and presumably this would rise as the current inpatients are either discharged or not.
 
chuckbert said:
Yet we do exactly that every year for our defence budget. It would be no different for us to pay a whole bunch of people to train on cutting edge medical equipment run constant exercises, go round the world teaching others, etc etc. We just chose to do it for the military because we are more scared of the ideology of other people than we are of health threats.
I’m sure that it would not be easy to get past the populace, but there is definitely an existing precedent with military.
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Yes, point taken. I suspect that a very different approach will be taken in the future with respect to preparing for this particular type of threat. Once it has made a difference to people's lives they will be more amenable. I wonder if (because they have not been experienced in the same direct, immediate way) people will feel any different about other matters - climate change, over use of antibiotics for example - I suspect I know the answer.
 
Essexyellows said:
Read. The. Article. "at points was accused - perhaps unfairly - of laughing by the outspoken co-host." So ........... it is about interpretation is it not rather than "fact" ?
Click to expand...
make your own mind up did she or didnt she?

 
QR said:
I think you're getting me mixed up with someone else. I specifically said she didn't smile it looked like a stress reaction.
Click to expand...
was she squeezing a fart out maybe? ? :oops: ;)
 
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