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Coronavirus - the new strain XVI

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gavreid said:
I don't know that 'deny' is the right word, there wasn't positive evidence. Interhuman transfer had long been strongly suspected.
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I mainly went off the report where senior USA advisors were being told of this fact by their Chinese counterparts at the back end of 2019.

Regardless, isn't it better to assume that it is transmittable? If you are later proved wrong, all you have done is mobilized a premature lockdown/restrictions on travel. Annoying, yes, but you haven't risked the lives of millions.
 
kabayiri said:
I mainly went off the report where senior USA advisors were being told of this fact by their Chinese counterparts at the back end of 2019.

Regardless, isn't it better to assume that it is transmittable? If you are later proved wrong, all you have done is mobilized a premature lockdown/restrictions on travel. Annoying, yes, but you haven't risked the lives of millions.
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They did - they issued international alerts. It's just like pfm, people say "link"...
 
kabayiri said:
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/r/r46354

This suggests the attitude in China changed on 20-Jan 2020.

Btw, this isn't a "get at China" point. There could be any source of viral outbreak from around the world. Do we need a better WHO is my question, going forward.
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And the first deaths in Europe were already taking place. Had the authorities in Europe been on the ball they'd have picked it up independently. China was being secretive, yes. I doubt the WHO could have said anything else from afar. I agree that it's starved of funds.
 
gavreid said:
And the first deaths in Europe were already taking place. Had the authorities in Europe been on the ball they'd have picked it up independently. China was being secretive, yes. I doubt the WHO could have said anything else from afar. I agree that it's starved of funds.
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In a globalized world, it's entirely likely we need a respected world medical police force.
There are still malicious state actors about. (I'm not referring to China here)
The effects of a pandemic on the world, and on Western economies, will have not gone unnoticed.
We need global medical experts with authority, and give them the ability to respond quickly.
 
We keep hearing from the Government "Next time we will be better prepared". Really? This lot? Plenty of warning this time but no preparation. I was so appalled by the QT panellists that I switch off so didn't wait to hear if there was a follow up. But when asked about the economic damage of the response, James Cleverly (another Eton boy) just responded with "but look at the vaccine roll out", to which Fiona Bruce picked him up about not answering the question and mentioned the much smaller deficit in South Korea. I never heard if this was followed up.
As someone who worked in Africa helping the Ebola outbreak said , we have been exporting pandemic expertise for years to other countries but do not use it ourselves.
 
Of course China covered it up (I'm told that they ordered PPE from Australia in August 2019), but we should and probably do have our own markers and would have been able to see that the markers had been passed and that a pandemic was inevitable.
 
k90tour said:
We keep hearing from the Government "Next time we will be better prepared". Really? This lot? Plenty of warning this time but no preparation. I was so appalled by the QT panellists that I switch off so didn't wait to hear if there was a follow up. But when asked about the economic damage of the response, James Cleverly (another Eton boy) just responded with "but look at the vaccine roll out", to which Fiona Bruce picked him up about not answering the question and mentioned the much smaller deficit in South Korea. I never heard if this was followed up.
As someone who worked in Africa helping the Ebola outbreak said , we have been exporting pandemic expertise for years to other countries but do not use it ourselves.
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Everyone knows we are slowly plodding into an obesity crisis. The high rates of obesity both here and in the USA may partly explain some of the covid deaths.
We must have a surplus of nutrition and fitness experts, yet we seem unable to prioritize healthy living too.
 
As far as an inquiry goes, I'm still waiting to see if the Grenfell inquiry gets to a point when they start to examine Kensington and Chelsea's role, or worst, lack of role in the tragedy. Very easy to point the finger at a cladding manufacturer but what about the local authority that have outsourced duty and care to a private company without due diligence. And all for money.
 
k90tour said:
As far as an inquiry goes, I'm still waiting to see if the Grenfell inquiry gets to a point when they start to examine Kensington and Chelsea's role, or worst, lack of role in the tragedy. Very easy to point the finger at a cladding manufacturer but what about the local authority that have outsourced duty and care to a private company without due diligence. And all for money.
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When these things get outsourced they always neglect the cost of managing the outsourcing - doing it on trust is completely negligent, yet that's always what happens. Reputational damage alone can be extremely costly...
 
We have a poor bunch in charge at the moment but the only way we can guarantee to make things worse is to put journalists, LBC callers & comedians (offering their 'hot takes') in charge. Whoever was in charge & it could have been Labour, different mistakes would have been made, I like to think that there would have been a better outcome but the consequences of chronic under investment under the last few Tory govts became apparent.

JC probably wouldn't have been so quick to cooperate with big pharma but we will never know.
 
k90tour said:
In other words, I don't believe anybody in government will be accountable.
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Historical precedents suggest you’re right to manage your expectations. This is good:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...d-inquiry-tories-judgment-government-failures

Especially liked the conclusion:

“But Britons shouldn’t really need a public inquiry to have the Conservative approach to coronavirus explained to us. Its consequences are all around. They will last for decades, even if we’re past the worst of the pandemic. It’s up to voters, not inquiry panels, to take the appropriate action.”
 
My fear Sean is that unless someone in huge capital spells out the government failings, starting from way back, then the public will vote for the usual populist rhetoric. And move on until next time.
 
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