Within the UK the big urban areas have been hit the hardest as well. Geography matters at least as much as policy.
Seems so. The difference between western and eastern Europe is pretty stark in particular - yes, some aren't testing much, but others are. eg Lithuania has done Germany style testing but has a quarter of their deaths per capita. Latvia the same with testing, with less than 1/10th the death rate.
Given that we were two weeks behind Italy, so we had extra time to prepare, react and take action, I think it's a monumental failure that we ended up with more deaths in a single day.
The deaths on a single day simply do not matter. They aren't even deaths from that day, but instead they are an accumulation of reports that were counted on the same day.
What matters is where we stand in 18-24 months time when hopefully we are vaccinating the population. You can drive the fastest lap in a grand prix and still lose the race, of even fail to finish.
We don't know where we'll end up in 18-24 months time. We can only make judgements now on the basis of the information we have now. The daily deaths tally is the best information we have now and my judgement is that it shows that our political leadership have squandered the advantages the country had. I want to see some evidence that they realise that they've fallen short, and how they are going to do better. Or we need new leadership.
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The population density of NZ is also only twice that of the Scottish Highlands... what we call 'social-distancing measures' here is what they call Tuesday.
But not over the whole of the country. Auckland has 1.5 times the population of Birmingham. It is not as densley packed, but it is still a large city.
New Zealand is thousands of miles from anywhere, it is not a valid comparison
What about Ireland?
There is a common theme that the countries that have been hit hardest have multiple big cities (US, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Netherlands) whereas countries with less population density like Ireland, Greece, NZ, Norway, Finland have been hit less.
Within the UK the big urban areas have been hit the hardest as well. Geography matters at least as much as policy.
What explains Cumbria though?
Is it particularly unusual, sounds like about 1% of the UK deaths and 0.8% of the UK population so worse than youd expect but quite possibly just random variations?
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The population density of NZ is also only twice that of the Scottish Highlands... what we call 'social-distancing measures' here is what they call Tuesday.
But not over the whole of the country. Auckland has 1.5 times the population of Birmingham. It is not as densley packed, but it is still a large city.
New Zealand is thousands of miles from anywhere, it is not a valid comparison
No wonder people have bizarre views if this is what mainstream serious news are reporting. This site keeps us far better informed than any mainstream press imo.
The return of the bow and curtsy would not be a silver lining to coronavirus.....
If this is winning, I would hate to see what losing looks like!
To be fair to Trump the US is now testing for Covid 19 at a faster rate than France, Spain and us and the US has a lower death rate at the moment than France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Luxembourg, San Marino, Andorra, Sint Marteen and us. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The UK locked down on 23 March (having requested organisations to lock down from 20 March and schools from 18 March).
NZ locked down between 23-26 March.
So UK locked down earlier.
If you are arguing NZ locked down earlier vs the spread of the disease that is probable (hard to know for sure with low levels of testing) but clearly NZ had a massive benefit of seeing what was happening elsewhere across the world to aid that decision.
Yes, they were earlier in the spread of the disease but we had the same benefit of seeing what was happening. People who were open mouthed at the wasted weeks and more at the time aren’t going to forget that. The 12th March and the infamous ‘let it spread through the population’ is the day that will be remembered as the missed opportunity. 590 cases at that point and 10 deaths, during Cheltenham and before the Stereophonics gig the following Saturday. By the time of the current lockdown 6650 cases and 335 deaths, more than ten times as many cases and thirty times as many deaths. These were the eleven days that led us to where we are now and that exponential growth could have been stopped.
New Zealand closed the borders on 19th March to all but New Zealanders, a key factor and something that the UK has not done. By 26th lockdown was complete, at that point they had 331 cases and zero deaths. Now they have 1330 cases and 4 deaths, They didn’t wait for a death toll to increase and they isolated their nation, these were key decisions.
When NZ were taking those decisions they had more information than the UK did. Closing borders is much easier in NZ which is one of the most remote countries in the world, probably the most remote country of its size?
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The population density of NZ is also only twice that of the Scottish Highlands... what we call 'social-distancing measures' here is what they call Tuesday.
But not over the whole of the country. Auckland has 1.5 times the population of Birmingham. It is not as densley packed, but it is still a large city.
New Zealand is thousands of miles from anywhere, it is not a valid comparison
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The population density of NZ is also only twice that of the Scottish Highlands... what we call 'social-distancing measures' here is what they call Tuesday.
But not over the whole of the country. Auckland has 1.5 times the population of Birmingham. It is not as densley packed, but it is still a large city.
New Zealand is thousands of miles from anywhere, it is not a valid comparison
200 down from yesterday, sad news for the relatives but UK curve starting to flatten which is good news
This pattern happens every single week.
Up until last weekend the figure was doubling every 3.5 days, had the curve not flattened and that trend continued there would have been 2,500 deaths announced today
The lower figures today have nothing to do with the curve flattening and everything to do with the weekend effect that happens with the death reporting.
The death numbers are a lag factor and will be last to flatten. Numbers in hospital is a much better guide. On this level we have definitely flattened the curve
Oh, I have no doubt we are curve flattening, I'm just picking up on HYUFD's number bollocks.
My post was 100% correct, had the curve not flattened we would have 2500 new deaths announced today
Surely all your posts are 100% correct? That last one implies that some of them might only be, say, 95% correct.
My posts are always of course 100% correct
If that’s right, the world’s cartographers are going to have to radically reassess where they have put the Strait of Hormuz, my personal favourite HYUFD post from 2019 having suggested that ships bound for the Persian Gulf should round the Cape of Good Hope to avoid it
200 down from yesterday, sad news for the relatives but UK curve starting to flatten which is good news
This pattern happens every single week.
Up until last weekend the figure was doubling every 3.5 days, had the curve not flattened and that trend continued there would have been 2,500 deaths announced today
The lower figures today have nothing to do with the curve flattening and everything to do with the weekend effect that happens with the death reporting.
The death numbers are a lag factor and will be last to flatten. Numbers in hospital is a much better guide. On this level we have definitely flattened the curve
Oh, I have no doubt we are curve flattening, I'm just picking up on HYUFD's number bollocks.
My post was 100% correct, had the curve not flattened we would have 2500 new deaths announced today
Surely all your posts are 100% correct? That last one implies that some of them might only be, say, 95% correct.
My posts are always of course 100% correct
If that’s right, the world’s cartographers are going to have to radically reassess where they have put the Strait of Hormuz, my personal favourite HYUFD post from 2019 having suggested that ships bound for the Persian Gulf should round the Cape of Good Hope to avoid it
It might perhaps have been a reference to his politics rather than their accuracy.
200 down from yesterday, sad news for the relatives but UK curve starting to flatten which is good news
This pattern happens every single week.
Up until last weekend the figure was doubling every 3.5 days, had the curve not flattened and that trend continued there would have been 2,500 deaths announced today
The lower figures today have nothing to do with the curve flattening and everything to do with the weekend effect that happens with the death reporting.
The death numbers are a lag factor and will be last to flatten. Numbers in hospital is a much better guide. On this level we have definitely flattened the curve
Oh, I have no doubt we are curve flattening, I'm just picking up on HYUFD's number bollocks.
My post was 100% correct, had the curve not flattened we would have 2500 new deaths announced today
Surely all your posts are 100% correct? That last one implies that some of them might only be, say, 95% correct.
My posts are always of course 100% correct
If that’s right, the world’s cartographers are going to have to radically reassess where they have put the Strait of Hormuz, my personal favourite HYUFD post from 2019 having suggested that ships bound for the Persian Gulf should round the Cape of Good Hope to avoid it
It might perhaps have been a reference to his politics rather than their accuracy.
To be fair, that’s definitely a way of avoiding the Strait.
200 down from yesterday, sad news for the relatives but UK curve starting to flatten which is good news
This pattern happens every single week.
Up until last weekend the figure was doubling every 3.5 days, had the curve not flattened and that trend continued there would have been 2,500 deaths announced today
The lower figures today have nothing to do with the curve flattening and everything to do with the weekend effect that happens with the death reporting.
The death numbers are a lag factor and will be last to flatten. Numbers in hospital is a much better guide. On this level we have definitely flattened the curve
Oh, I have no doubt we are curve flattening, I'm just picking up on HYUFD's number bollocks.
My post was 100% correct, had the curve not flattened we would have 2500 new deaths announced today
Surely all your posts are 100% correct? That last one implies that some of them might only be, say, 95% correct.
My posts are always of course 100% correct
If that’s right, the world’s cartographers are going to have to radically reassess where they have put the Strait of Hormuz, my personal favourite HYUFD post from 2019 having suggested that ships bound for the Persian Gulf should round the Cape of Good Hope to avoid it
It might perhaps have been a reference to his politics rather than their accuracy.
Seems like virtually the only major European country that has done anything right, to read that, given how events have proceeded.
Yet Germany failed to contain the virus. It seemed more important for the authorities here not to inconvenience people going on skiing holidays than to seriously try to contain a deadly epidemic. Germany seeming so far to be doing a bit better than Britain isn't saying much. All the major European governments have been disappointing.
And why is Hammond indulging in lazy stereotypes? Not helpful, or funny if it's supposed to be a joke.
Taiwan looks to be doing the best so far.
New Zealand too. The message 'We go hard, we go early', very All Blacks. Didn't wait until people wanted to close things down, did it well before they'd even thought about it. As Jacinda Ardern said "“A strategy that sacrifices people in favour of supposedly a better economic outcome is a false dichotomy and has been shown to produce the worst of both worlds: loss of life and prolonged economic pain,”
Clear, forceful, truthful, compassionate.
New Zealand is doing relatively well, but still worse than Taiwan (276 cases per million against 16 cases per million). New Zealand also had the advantage of seeing what was happening in other countries which I'm not sure they really made the most of.
The UK had that advantage too. Then we wasted at least a week before locking down. Leaders lead, they don't wait for the people to agree with them. NZ did that and they closed the borders as well, all things which the UK refused to do because they thought people wouldn't like it.
The population density of NZ is also only twice that of the Scottish Highlands... what we call 'social-distancing measures' here is what they call Tuesday.
But not over the whole of the country. Auckland has 1.5 times the population of Birmingham. It is not as densley packed, but it is still a large city.
New Zealand is thousands of miles from anywhere, it is not a valid comparison
What about Ireland?
There is a common theme that the countries that have been hit hardest have multiple big cities (US, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Netherlands) whereas countries with less population density like Ireland, Greece, NZ, Norway, Finland have been hit less.
Within the UK the big urban areas have been hit the hardest as well. Geography matters at least as much as policy.
What explains Cumbria though?
Is it particularly unusual, sounds like about 1% of the UK deaths and 0.8% of the UK population so worse than youd expect but quite possibly just random variations?
In all the debate over Syrian refugees, the primary victims, the Yazidis have been completely forgotten. The right didn't want to let anyone at all in. The left focused on letting as many in as possible, largely the Sunni Muslims who victimized the Yazidis. The people actually closest to the Jews in the 1940s were just left facing genocide and sex slavery.
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with their trousers down.
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with its trousers down.
You’re not allowed to question anything because it will upset the PM , asking difficult questions is unpatriotic and everyone needs to just say everything is going great ! When Spain and Italy were reporting huge deaths a day the UK media reported it as a catastrophe but now that’s happening in the country it’s just a side show to the press’s martyrdom and beatification of the PM.
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with their trousers down.
Yes we need to test more (though we are still testing more than France for example) but our deaths per head are currently lower than France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Yeah, I had a cousin who didn't believe Bozza was in hospital until she was told by another one that he saw Bozza arrive at Tommy's where he works. Then she didn't believe it was serious and the government were using it to distract everyone.
There is a hardcore if remainers who are just stuck on repeat.
Really? If that's true it can only be the work of the Hard Brexit Right, attempting to discredit pro-EU journalists as depraved conspiracy theorists and nutters. Astonishingly dark if so.
It’s a shame Carrie wasn’t closer to her due date . That way the press could ignore the 10,000 death toll as they camped out waiting for the new arrival . We could all be discussing baby names whilst ignoring the governments failings in its handling of the virus .
It’s a shame Carrie wasn’t closer to her due date . That way the press could ignore the 10,000 death toll as they camped out waiting for the new arrival . We could all be discussing baby names whilst ignoring the governments failings in its handling of the virus .
It's a terrible situation where the government has no choice but to balance the number of deaths from the virus against the damage caused by a huge economic downturn.
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with their trousers down.
The first question has been asked a great deal already, and answered many many times. The second has certainly been asked but remains a live concern, the third does not seem to have been reflected on a great deal but should.
You are also projecting your own view on comments regarding following the science. Given most places in Europe are doing the same or very similar things, at different times based on their levels of infection, it would have been a very odd thing to be smug about it since the science in those places seems to have led to pretty much the same conclusions in most of them, and its managing that which has been of different effectiveness from place to place.
It’s a shame Carrie wasn’t closer to her due date . That way the press could ignore the 10,000 death toll as they camped out waiting for the new arrival . We could all be discussing baby names whilst ignoring the governments failings in its handling of the virus .
The baby will be called Covid-19, to show how the nation is overcoming the disease and to remind Boris what number child of his it is.
Before calling it a day, I just have to say that I think the happy-clappy 'God is Love' crowd have definitely got it wrong.
The vindictive so-and-so from the Old Testament, killing children in Egypt and drowning everyone except for one family and two of each species, seems closer to the mark to me.
It’s a shame Carrie wasn’t closer to her due date . That way the press could ignore the 10,000 death toll as they camped out waiting for the new arrival . We could all be discussing baby names whilst ignoring the governments failings in its handling of the virus .
The baby will be called Covid-19, to show how the nation is overcoming the disease and to remind Boris what number child of his it is.
All praise be to Boris, our Lord and saviour, and his blessed mistress...
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with their trousers down.
If we had locked down earlier surely the economic free fall would be faster? Complaining of both seems strange.
"We were told smugly" - well it depends who by, govts have generally been very reluctant to criticise each other and say each country is different. Perhaps you can find a quote from a cabinet minister, CMO or CSO smugly criticising infernal Europeans for not following science?
Of course the govt has been caught with their trousers down, so has every country, this is a once in a hundred years crisis, it would have been crazy and wildly expensive to be constantly fully prepared for such an event.
Comments
https://twitter.com/leonardocarella/status/1249405601978998785
https://twitter.com/leonardocarella/status/1249405711953670144
There's so many of these.
https://twitter.com/leonardocarella/status/1249060001089556481?s=20
How stupid we are to be doing so much testing.
The return of the bow and curtsy would not be a silver lining to coronavirus.....
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
I would say the same about IDS
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1249354352248193025?s=20
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1249233564278894593?s=20
https://twitter.com/AGKD123/status/1249418192050630661
https://youtu.be/ReWWn9UZbOw
BORIS HAS RISEN!!!
https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1249398662343667712?s=19
https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1249413152128880642?s=19
https://twitter.com/Ezidi2/status/1100350647650697216
Can we now start asking why we were later to lock down, are slower to test, and have a higher death rate than comparator countries?
Even the much-derided US have are now testing at almost double our rate per capita.
Meanwhile the economy is in free-fall and there’s no indication of an exit strategy whatsoever.
It’s only 6 weeks since we were told smugly, that unlike those infernal Europeans, we will be “following the science”. This country’s government - and the mainstream media whose job it is to hold them to account - have been caught with their trousers down.
Sweden is still not locked down
There is a hardcore if remainers who are just stuck on repeat.
I do hope he is taking a day off every so often to keep his energy levels ok.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249093268920467457?s=20
https://twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1249322968032968705?s=20
https://twitter.com/GSTTnhs/status/1249414404162150402?s=20
Alas Tim Brooke-Taylor seems to have failed to dodge the paw of this big cat. OBE's will never be the same again.
1) He hasn't been worked at The Economist for many years.
2) He's a longstanding Tory, and he's retweeting a bunch of hard left accounts.
3) He worked for David Cameron (pbuh) in Downing Street between 2013-15, so most unlikely.
4) Currently he's working at the finest university in the world
http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/christopher-lockwood/
I think it is a spoof account
“My survival was powered by love “.
Someone pass me the sick bucket !
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8212365/Swedish-PM-tighten-coronavirus-restrictions-Austria-Denmark-begin-easing-lockdown.html
You are also projecting your own view on comments regarding following the science. Given most places in Europe are doing the same or very similar things, at different times based on their levels of infection, it would have been a very odd thing to be smug about it since the science in those places seems to have led to pretty much the same conclusions in most of them, and its managing that which has been of different effectiveness from place to place.
The vindictive so-and-so from the Old Testament, killing children in Egypt and drowning everyone except for one family and two of each species, seems closer to the mark to me.
That's the god of COVID-19.
Night all.
"We were told smugly" - well it depends who by, govts have generally been very reluctant to criticise each other and say each country is different. Perhaps you can find a quote from a cabinet minister, CMO or CSO smugly criticising infernal Europeans for not following science?
Of course the govt has been caught with their trousers down, so has every country, this is a once in a hundred years crisis, it would have been crazy and wildly expensive to be constantly fully prepared for such an event.