Politicians are now competing to see who can be 'toughest' on the Coronavirus. They are not interested in actually doing the right thing. Everything is a political decision, not a scientific one. To think that government advisors do anything other than what they are told to do is naive. And I'm talking several countries here, not just the UK.

Red and Blue Army!

Unusually for social media and conversation in general, the Corona virus has created something unique in that people seem no longer certain of their opinion. Politically there seems no mast to tie opinion to, with constantly shifting advice and actions forcing us to change our views on an almost daily basis. I was of the opinion that it was an over reaction but then news came out of Italy of doctors having to make life or death decisions over treatment because of a shortage of beds and resources. With so many people in the UK now on zero-hour contracts, or without assured sick pay it is incredibly hard decision to make with regard to closing schools, or even going into lockdown, but it seems inevitable it will happen.

There can be positives come out of this and adversity does seem to have a way of bringing out the best in (most) people. Here in Malta the cable companies are giving free premium channels to all users to help entertain them during the school shutdown, while the government has said it will suspend collection of tax and social security in April. I expect we'll go into lockdown next week despite only a dozen cases so far. Round the corner from me this morning men in protective suits were spraying a car while a government official stood there unprotected stroking his pot belly and probably thinking about lunch; some things never change.

What will happen if both strategy wins? (Herd immunity which ends with 30-40 mill infected British & rest of the world cleaned the virus even if temporarily with lock-down and removes it after as it is not sustainable)

Isolated Britain?

There is always a political element to crises. For the record, I have no gear to grind with the British response to the virus, as I admit I'm not qualified to do so.

What I do challenge is the continual denigration of scientific analysis on a range of issues which the far right have pushed in recent years. Trump is obviously a figurehead, but even recently on here, I was having to defend scientific analysis from certain posters that were accusing the scientific community of having a Marxist agenda.

That has been led by cowards in charge looking to personally gain from wildly criticising 'experts'. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost, and there is a dark humour in how those same people are having to rely on the very same people they were ridiculing.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

just witnessed the total fck-up that is Coronovirus today.

Still, the UK Government is not shutting schools. The Irish are shutting theirs for 16 weeks. So in the UK, infected kids (who show no symptoms) are freely allowed to mix with other kids and adults and grandparents. Good start.

Meanwhile mainland Europe has become the epi-centre for the virus. Why is that ?
Could it be because Europe has no coordinated plan, and no borders ?

Muppets of low intelligence.
I was trying to get a box or two of dogfood in Tescos this morning.
There were people pushing extra-large trolleys full of bread and tins of food, whilst talking on their mobile phones,.."yeah, are you in aisle 10 ? yeah , get as much bog-roll and soap as you can. See you at the check-out"

I wish illness would take them all,...

"The facts have changed", Rishi Sunak

This is really unacceptable. My mother-in-law arrived to UK last Tuesday (even if from non-risk country by then) and she said there was no checks at all. (By the way we are sending her back today earlier than planned as there may be a travel ban with UK due to latest numbers and government`s approach)

UK had an advantage of being island and being out of Schengen zone, this advantage has been wasted ruthlessly.

Edited by blackheatheagle (15 Mar 2020 1.34pm)