Armchair critic – my opinion
It’s all too easy to become an overnight coronavirus critic, or any type of critic for that matter from the comfort of your armchair, and especially so from the safety of your home. But I can’t help thinking that the UK government was just too late to lockdown and is now too early to ‘unlock’.
Difficult
I don’t have the benefit of all the technical and scientific data the government has. I don’t have a medical or science degree. But from what I have read, and from what I have seen and heard, and as a lay person, I just can’t help but think that we haven’t quite gotten this right.
It must be unimaginably difficult to make decisions under this type of unrelenting pressure and with so many ‘crtics’ snapping at your heels. But the facts, so far, can’t be denied. We have the second worst coranavirus death count in the world after America and the worst in Europe. Our essential testing capacity is woefully inadequate.
The science
Our contact tracing has all but stopped. We haven’t even quarantined incoming visitors at our ports either yet, have we? The tracing app hasn’t been rolled out yet properly throughout the UK, although it is being tested. Three of the five measures to be met to unlock, in my opinion, haven’t been fully achieved yet, have they? The PPE debacle is still of concern and is ongoing, the support for care homes was late arriving – is this a scandal yet to unfold? Shouldn’t these things have been done first before we move to ‘unlock’ the nation?
The charts we have all witnessed in the coronavirus briefings have not been like-for-like (the count comparisons for European countries are not like-for-like) – especially in the early stages of analysis. So what did these charts really mean? What was the point if it didn’t compare properly? Care home data was not included until the latter stages, why not? Why are there delays in gathering data at weekends and bank holidays too?
Coronavirus briefings
At one the the very first briefings with Boris Johnson and the chief scientific officer and chief medical officer – we were presented with the ‘science’ (follow the science) – and that seemed to suggest the government was to allow herd immunity to establish. Now, the professionals in charge must have analysed stacks of data to arrive at that conclusion… only for it to change just a few short days later to… ‘stay at home’. The ‘modelling’ of the virus spread had changed – but really by so much so soon to dramatically alter the initial advice that quickly?
And the point is?
Anyway, my point is this… that with all the uncertainty surrounding the situation with the coronavirus in the UK, the UK government have now decided to ‘ease’ our lockdown. But are we really ready. Our PM has formed a very liberal approach to this, and that is admirable in some ways – it’s ideal to ‘trust’ the people. But Scotland and Wales have opted to ignore his message and go in a different direction. Where is the unity?
And where are the finer details of our ‘unlocking’ process, such as work practices, school openings, the meeting of family and friends, travel, transport and exercise etc. etc. etc. None of this is definite enough. It shouldn’t be left to interpretation.
R value
We hear much about the ‘R’ value (the virus reproductive ability), this needs at least to be below 1. We are told it is 0.5 to 0.9 but how do we really know without the benefit of reliable and consistent testing. Is it a best guess based on hospital and care home data?
We have gone from the message of, ‘stay at home’, to avoid catching the virus – to, go back to work and ‘stay alert’. Isn’t this a step too far too soon – it’s far too early – long before we are properly ready? The economy is important but it will fix over time. Our lives are more important and safety must come first. Business always has the ability to find its way – it too will repair over time.
We haven’t touched on other health issues the nation will suffer brought on by the ‘effect’ of the coronavirus. Such as, missed treatments, missed illness diagnosis, mental health issues, suicides and community care etc. This for another post.
Flaky
In my opinion, It’s flaky and disjointed thinking to say the least.
Far be it for me to say, but surely it’s just too early to come out of lockdown, isn’t it? The virus was there yesterday and it’s still there today. It’s likely to be here indefinitely and will remain until we conquer it with a worldwide vaccine programme as was done with measles and polio. Until then we will all have to learn to live with it.
I guess we will have to start the process of ‘unlocking’ at some point – but please, only when we are fully ready to do so, surely. I don’t think now is the right time – we have much more to first.
Just opinion
These are my opinions and that’s all they are, my opinions.
It’s all very well to have an opinion with the benefit of hindsight I hear you say, and of course it is. But my opinions were formed as this unfolded, especially in the early stages.
Oh…and let’s use masks too – why not?
Thanks for reading.