The UK’s big Coronavirus gamble – not taking measures now that other nations have in place
Chart from my live on #Newsnight just now. Right or wrong, there’s no doubt the UK is increasingly an outlier in our Covid response. pic.twitter.com/ZczXx8M48c
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) March 12, 2020
Unlike many other similar countries there is little doubt that the measures that that have not been put in place here make the UK very much of an outlier. The objective, as is repeated time and time again, is to change the virus timetable so that the peak takes place in the early summer when it is expected that other demands on the National Health Service will be lower.
So daily life in the UK is not that much different from before the virus started and although the number of reported cases has been relatively low in comparison it is being increasingly accepted that the figures that are published daily are very much a low estimate and that the overall total could be many times more.
In an inerview last night the former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was questioning the approach and said he would have expected certain activities which involves lots of people athering together to have been legally stopped by now.
So is the gamble by Team Johnson right? The answer is that we don’t know and only time will tell. It might just be that the UK comes out of this this with far less damage.
My wife and I are both in our 70s and have taken several voluntary decisions like not travelling to London as we do quite a lot. We are also not going to pubs, restaurants and to other venues where there are a lot of people. A theatre trip next week for which we have expensive tickets has been abandoned.
Most days I go for hour long rides on my bike on my own which I am still doing but I’m not now stopping for coffee and do not come into contact with other people. Maintaining fitness could be a good defence.
Shopping could be difficult but freinds have offered to help out.