It seems that science and common sense has been suspended in Britain. Maybe the process started in 2016 with the referendum but with each step since then including, the nonsensical Brexit negotiations with the dithering May leadership and the far right advocates of hard Brexit, to the choice of the inept Johnson as leader of the Tories, the general elections of the 12th December 2019 then the government’s shambolic handling of the Corona virus crises. Where are the Doctors and Scientists protesting en masse against this debacle?
The basic rules of dealing with an epidemic have been suspended. The government has concentrated at the wrong end of problem because they were like rabbits caught in the headlight. The focus was on the more glamorous treatment end of the illness, not at prevention. Why does Johnson want to concentrate on getting Dyson to make ventilators, when we have no PPE for our frontline workers? Why struggle for weeks to deliver these when they say they have got them?
Prevention of epidemics extracts from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/112656/9789241507134_eng.pdf;jsessionid=F7869B94D27897997E246F963888DEB0?sequence=1
Recommendations for early recognition and source control
“Early recognition of ARIs (Acute respiratory infections) and application of source control, including respiratory hygiene, are administrative control measures aimed at reducing or preventing the dissemination of infectious agents from the source. The early identification, isolation and reporting of ARIs of potential concern are therefore central to effective containment and treatment. “
In summary you will need to try and limit the influx of cases from outside your country if there is a pandemic. This has run fowl of the EU principle of free flow of people, and in the case of the globalist agenda od free flow of capitalists but not necessarily workers. To this day I don’t think UK has entirely closed its borders and flights although the numbers are diminished.
Also measures that would help would be to monitor all those entering the country with temperature monitors, testing and isolation of newcomers until shown to be negative.
A rigorous widescale identification of all cases should be an integral part of this policy with the aim of early identification and quarantine of all cases including mild cases and asymptomatic carriers, who should all be quarantined on identification. Contact tracing and testing should also follow.
Importantly, one of the first steps to take would also to protect your frontline workforce, something that has been very slow to implement. None of these measures were adopted in UK, despite the clear efficacy of these measure shown in stemming the epidemic in both Wuhan and China in general, and South Korea and other Asian countries. Instead our government advocated self-isolation of mild suspected case at home with their families thus increasing the pool of carriers and cases.
Social distancing should really have been much stricter and at the outset. This should have meant a much stricter curfew with restriction of travel for only essential workers rather than the wishy-washy go to work only if you cannot work from home. This gaping disclaimer means that construction, manufacturing and other considerable labour force are free to roam the streets. And then there is the loophole of exercise and cycling and so on, difficult to distance yourself from joggers and cyclists coming at speed in narrow roads and lanes. Many of these also continue their habit of congregating in number.
These measures of cutting the supply of new cases was one adopted by the Chinese successfully. But it requires the state to run huge quarantine facilities as well as home delivery service for the self-isolating population. So, the Tories opted out for the wishy-washy measures which translates to the worst option.
The focus on treatment rather than prevention has been the major downfall of the West because when the treatment facilities are very quickly swamped and the call for more ventilators is a focus on treatment that is useless. This is especially so because the government has asked non-specialists to develop ventilators from scratch. This of course may be possible but would take a long time to design construct and then adequately test and validate. If the government is earnest about this, they should seek established manufacturers with validated machines, because we can’t wait for a year to get our own machines. Anyway, this highlights another Tory ideological nonsense. Thatcher and subsequent governments have systematically dismantled industry in this country in favor of financialization dictated by the city of London. Now even so-called home-grown incubators are probably going to be made in Asia by a British tax haven refugee.