AndrewJB wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:04 pm
Nine weeks from mid January - when the first human to human transmission was substantiated. The NHS won't be considering responses to a disease only from the first local UK transmission - thankfully. Nine weeks! As for Horten, I can see you'd love to be able to discredit him, but that still wouldn't undermine the validity of his questions. Why was the government unable to supply first line staff with the equipment they need to do their jobs and remain safe - considering the government had at least a month if not nine weeks to prepare?
As I said, measuring time period as 9 weeks is all with the "benefit of hindsight" - or just looking to "find fault" and "add nothing of value or constructive." So, mid-Jan, when there were reports of a virus in Wuhan, did you know that it would spread from China and other parts of Asia to Europe, North America and, as we now expect, the rest of the world?
Company I work for is global, including offices in China, HK, Singapore. 21-Jan our "global security support centre" reported "health screenings for people having travelled from Wuhan have been implemented at borders and airports in HK, Macau, the US, Australia, Japan, Spore, Malaysia and S.Korea. With the Lunar New Year holiday due to commence at the end of this week, there will very large numbers of people travelling throughout the region... However, it should be noted that WHO currently advises against any travel restrictions and has not recommended any specific measures for travellers to China."
So, what should UK gov't have been doing - given the WHO advice on 21-Jan: no travel restrictions, no specific measures for travellers to China...?
31-Jan, our company issued "Coronavirus Travel Advisory" - saying "all travel to and from China should be deferred until further notice..."
So, what should UK gov't have been doing 31-Jan?
3-Feb our Coronavirus response team issued "Return to Work Guidance" for those who'd been "anywhere in mainland China" for Lunar New Year (or other reasons) "please avoid returning to the office and work from home for 14 days since the date you left China."
Around last week in Jan, I advised a member of my team, based in US, to postpone plans to make a trip to Spore in Feb. On 7-Feb I was scheduled to video interview an new hire for my team who was based in Spore. He cancelled the interview as the Spore office had just issued their first set of work-from-home instructions.
I could go on, both with my personal work experience or with the media reports - and I dare say the posts on the original coronavirus thread on here.
I'm sure you get it. There was no reason for UK gov't/NHS to be doing anything exceptional 9 weeks ago with the expectation that the coronavirus was already "on it's way."
As for Horton, don't you think he discredits himself with his back story? (Thanks, again for posting the links, btw).