[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by rusticgal

I think they are doing a magnificent job....its so easy to sit back and critisise. No other Politician would have wanted to be in Boris's shoes leading his country through a pandemic...so all they do it fault him at any opportunity. Of course mistakes have been made..and sadly many lives lost...but we through money at creating a vaccine and when we got one we stuck our order in and now we are rolling it out with efficiency....

You SHOULD sit back and criticise the government, not downplay it's incompetence and sneer at those who take issue with the government's lack of action when it counted.

The government works for it's people, the worship people have for Boris is nothing short of unnerving. He wasn't forced into that job, in fact he and other Tories manipulated events to get him that position. He played the game. He's not some hero, he's a leader that has constantly mishandled one of the greatest crises in recent memory. When the government do something wrong, hold them accountable, don't baby them because when they **** up, people die.

[Samm]

Originally Posted by rusticgal

I think they are doing a magnificent job....its so easy to sit back and critisise. No other Politician would have wanted to be in Boris's shoes leading his country through a pandemic...so all they do it fault him at any opportunity. Of course mistakes have been made..and sadly many lives lost...but we through money at creating a vaccine and when we got one we stuck our order in and now we are rolling it out with efficiency....

The job of a PM isn’t something you apply for on indeed luv. He wanted it, he got it. So he should be responsible for everything in regards to public well being.

[DouglasS]

Originally Posted by rusticgal

I think they are doing a magnificent job....its so easy to sit back and critisise. No other Politician would have wanted to be in Boris's shoes leading his country through a pandemic...so all they do it fault him at any opportunity. Of course mistakes have been made..and sadly many lives lost...but we through money at creating a vaccine and when we got one we stuck our order in and now we are rolling it out with efficiency....

Can always rely on you rusti to talk sense

[Crimson Dynamo]

seems to be a bit slow in Scotland

[Crimson Dynamo]

my mum hasnt even had a letter

[user104658]

Speed of roll out yes. 2nd dose shenanigans, not so great.

[Withano]

Yeh. Their poor leadership caused 100k deaths, but their reaction to the vaccine should hopefully stop killing the next 100k

[Oliver_W]

Yeah they seem to be doing okay. It doesn't erase the terrible work they've done so far, and I wonder if they'll be trying as hard once the May council elections are done and dusted. "Ohhh, they're trying their best! Look at how well they're doing with the vaccine!! Maybe they're not so bad after all!!!"

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Yeah they seem to be doing okay. It doesn't erase the terrible work they've done so far, and I wonder if they'll be trying as hard once the May council elections are done and dusted. "Ohhh, they're trying their best! Look at how well they're doing with the vaccine!! Maybe they're not so bad after all!!!"

What the hell you think this is about the May elections

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Cherie

What the hell you think this is about the May elections

Not necessarily nor do I think they admittedly okay job they're doing with the vaccine is representative of how they've been doing up to this point. It's just, most governments start doing crowd-pleasers when a general election is round the corner. I could see the tories getting decimated in council elections if they'd continued to hopelessly flounder to the same degree...

[Gstar]

Vaccination programme: Maybe
Pandemic as a whole: No

[Samm]

Yes the vaccine programme is going well. However it’s one of the only elements during this crisis the government didn’t have complete control over. Oxford scientists were able to work amazingly to find a vaccine so quickly through a world effort. All the government have done is effectively bought enough doses and planned ahead because our death figure is the highest in Europe.

The government however DID have direct control over locking down the country sooner, limiting travel and closing borders, lifting lockdowns too early , the dreaded tier system and of course not forgetting eat out to help out.

[DouglasS]

Originally Posted by Samm

Yes the vaccine programme is going well. However it’s one of the only elements during this crisis the government didn’t have complete control over. Oxford scientists were able to work amazingly to find a vaccine so quickly through a world effort. All the government have done is effectively bought enough doses and planned ahead because our death figure is the highest in Europe.

The government however DID have direct control over locking down the country sooner, limiting travel and closing borders, lifting lockdowns too early , the dreaded tier system and of course not forgetting eat out to help out.

Downplaying the governments efforts

This vaccination programme will probably be one of the most amazing and astonishing things a government has ever done

A vaccine rollout task is not some simple task. They got millions of supply of the first vaccine to be approved and ensured they were top of the list. They researched incredibly well. They had hospital storage space ready immediately across the entire country, they trained up thousands of people in advance across the country to help with mass vaccination. They heavily funded into the Oxford vaccine to help it progress as fast as it did so it would be one of the leading vaccines, they were also ready for the mass vaccination as soon as it got ready.

Just because you don’t like the tories doesn’t mean you should just downplay a great accomplishment, surely objectively speaking you can see this as a great achievement by the government and they have done really well in this aspect (quite a large aspect) of the pandemic

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Samm

Yes the vaccine programme is going well. However it’s one of the only elements during this crisis the government didn’t have complete control over. Oxford scientists were able to work amazingly to find a vaccine so quickly through a world effort. All the government have done is effectively bought enough doses and planned ahead because our death figure is the highest in Europe.

The government however DID have direct control over locking down the country sooner, limiting travel and closing borders, lifting lockdowns too early , the dreaded tier system and of course not forgetting eat out to help out.

You are right.
Also too they have in the main handed the responsibility of the vaccine roll out rightly to public health and the local sources.

This is what can bring the best possible success when you use the right sourcing rather than looking for private sources.

So across the board the vaccine roll out has been successful from to their credit on the vaccine, how the government decided to have it done.

There will be tests to come.
The problem arose of not carrying out the still recommended or not much longer second vaccine to be given.

The success of the second roll out of that will be equally as vital and important as this first roll out.

So as you say, it is something the government had little to no control over as to the vaccines.

Whereas too, your last paragraph cannot be disputed and along with other very serious things you as well as your list, definitely.
The government had full control on those things, not with hindsight either but actually with forewarning from January last year of what was to come.

Well said Samm.

[Samm]

Originally Posted by joeysteele

You are right.
Also too they have in the main handed the responsibility of the vaccine roll out rightly to public health and the local sources.

This is what can bring the best possible success when you use the right sourcing rather than looking for private sources.

So across the board the vaccine roll out has been successful from to their credit on the vaccine, how the government decided to have it done.

There will be tests to come.
The problem arose of not carrying out the still recommended or not much longer second vaccine to be given.

The success of the second roll out of that will be equally as vital and important as this first roll out.

So as you say, it is something the government had little to no control over as to the vaccines.

Whereas too, your last paragraph cannot be disputed and along with other very serious things you as well as your list, definitely.
The government had full control on those things, not with hindsight either but actually with forewarning from January last year of what was to come.

Well said Samm.

Yep Joey! great point about the use of local sources, I really didn’t think of that. It begs the question then since so far the vaccine roll out has been so successful with this method. I wonder if our shockingly bad test and trace system would of been of “world beating” standard had the government sourced this through public health and local sources, instead of the private source they used!

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Samm

Yep Joey! great point about the use of local sources, I really didn’t think of that. It begs the question then since so far the vaccine roll out has been so successful with this method. I wonder if our shockingly bad test and trace system would of been of “world beating” standard had the government sourced this through public health and local sources, instead of the private source they used!

Yes, I do myself personally believe test, track and trace would have had much more success under the full direction of more public health and local sourced action.

[Glenn.]

One ok thing against at least half a dozen life ending decisions...

[Saph]

vaccine the young people first so we can go out lmao

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by Saph

vaccine the young people first so we can go out lmao

no, not all young people (only those in a risk group, those who got asthma, other medical conditions)

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Saph

vaccine the young people first so we can go out lmao

Some nutters seem to think that once the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, the young and healthy should wait for the rest of the world to be done..

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Some nutters seem to think that once the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, the young and healthy should wait for the rest of the world to be done..

In theory if you wanted global eradication, the best path forward would be a global approach of vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable and then working down the groups in sync...

However, the sort of global organization effort needed for that doesn't exist and in the current world cannot exist, different countries are going to move at different rates, and (frankly) at least half of the global population is never even going to be offered vaccination. Global eradication is simply not possible and Covid will continue to circulate, thus, the next best option is to concentrate efforts locally to mitigate the worst of it, and probably constant vaccine development to tackle new emerging strains as they appear, if they're particularly worrying ones.

[The Slim Reaper]

The 1 year anniversary of this iconic speech given by Boris. He's doing his best...

[user104658]

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper

The 1 year anniversary of this iconic speech given by Boris. He's doing his best...

The right of human populations, throughout the earth, to ... ... ... buy 'n' sell ****.

Isn't that just capitalism dogma in a nutshell. Elevation of what started as a way to barter goods and services to get stuff done a little more easily, into some sort of philosophically intrinsic aspect of human existence. It's just so ... ... empty.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

In theory if you wanted global eradication, the best path forward would be a global approach of vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable and then working down the groups in sync...

However, the sort of global organization effort needed for that doesn't exist and in the current world cannot exist, different countries are going to move at different rates, and (frankly) at least half of the global population is never even going to be offered vaccination. Global eradication is simply not possible and Covid will continue to circulate, thus, the next best option is to concentrate efforts locally to mitigate the worst of it, and probably constant vaccine development to tackle new emerging strains as they appear, if they're particularly worrying ones.

So the young and healthy are meant to sit around, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for people who might not even be offered a vaccination to catch up?
Nah.
The global approach should start at home.

[Oliver_W]

I wouldn't necessarily mind the government using a private developer for the track and trace, but the one they chose was so crap and so expensive...

Like, Facebook and that app, square something? They can keep track of where you're going based on location data and public check-in points, how hard would it be to use that tech as a blueprint?