Absolutely. And it needs to be a global effort that is shared and manufactured equally when it does happen, despite Mr. Trump's apparent push to monetise and monopolise the potential vaccine. But hey, that's capitalism isn't it?

I'm 44... looks like the key age!

True and yes I take your point its going to spread but surely limiting the contact amongst the public has to be a deterrent 

There absolutely is something we can do to stop the virus from spreading - just look at several Asian countries.

To give just a tiny example, HMG had spend £140 million on bombarding us daily with a misleading and pointless campaign on Brexit ('Get ready for Brexit, it's happening on 31 October').

There has been no similar campaign on Covid-19 and as a result we had quite a few cases in Feb of infected people turning up at GP surgeries or A&Es.

It's all about priorities and quality of leadership I guess.

Most Children do have mild symptoms but they can pass it on to older people who can die. Robert Peston tweeted that key workers children will get free child care at schools.  It's insane not to shut schools. By fannying about this last week has probably guaranteed Italy numbers here in two weeks.

Don't forget that there's a lag of up to two weeks before the results of any measures appear in the data because of the incubation period. In the interim we'll continue to see cases appear that result from the previous control regime.  

We can’t stop it from spreading now, we would have needed to completely lockdown and close borders 2 weeks ago. We can try and slow the spread by social distancing but we can’t stop it. 

It was lunacy not to stop Chinese flights back in January and it was idiocy not to stop Italian flights a few weeks back. 

We had the opportunity to be way way ahead of the curve on this but gross incompetence and short sightedness put paid to that. 

Agreed secondary schools have 1,000 + pupils and more its a breeding ground , they are less likely to die but they can sure as hell pass it on , and if parents pass the kids to the grandparents then that is just fool hardy 

Look I am not a Trump Fan and he does spout some rubbish, he was also late to the party. But in the last seven days he has been very visible.

He has addressed the nation, he has been giving updates. Tonight for example asking people not to panic buy.

All weekend shoppers have stripping shelves. The PM nowhere to be seen

It's just so maddening why the hell are we waiting. 

If schools close, parents have now lost the option for grandparents to look after the kids through the day so will have to be off to look after the kids. For some, that is not an option as their employers won't sanction it (and this right-wing govt refuses to force employers to be more flexible and sympathetic)

With the elderly grandparents self-isolating anyway, they won't be in contact with the grandkids to get infected.

Because they will be off for months

Another critical article of the UK approach:

Why have they abandoned population testing and contact tracing to identify and seclude clusters of infections? They recommend only testing cases in hospital. Won’t this strategy ensure that the spread of the virus is intense and will cause more infections and more deaths in the near term?

Why do they recommend self-isolation only for people with symptoms when Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO reports that “it seems that people shed more virus in the early phases rather than the late phases of disease”? Asymptomatic contacts may be highly infectious, so they should be tested, isolated and followed up in the community. Will they set up quarantine centres to help those who have no family support or are homeless, or need social care?

What are their plans for national, district, municipal, village and community mobilisation? “Nudge” is not enough. We need to devolve power and autonomy to allow locally intelligent decisions around a coherent national strategy. What is their detailed strategy for screening of infected people in the home, and provision of CT scans for those with early signs of pneumonia and to identify those at high risk? Without an all-out national mobilisation for social distancing, are the behavioural and nudge strategies really evidence-based to flatten the peak? Or simply based on models?

Why are we emphasising herd immunity now? Does coronavirus induce strong herd immunity or is it like flu, where immunity remains weak and new strains emerge each year? We have much to learn about Covid-19 immune responses.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/15/uk-covid-19-strategy-questions-unanswered-coronavirus-outbreak

Q. How can you tell when Trump is lying?

A. His lips move.

His cretinous 'base' will believe him though (well, most will, the others will think coronavirus to be a punishment from god for allowing abortion and gays to marry), because America is full of backward pricks. 

This day and age jobs will be safe, time off for dependants and in this current climate no one would argue or could argue 

There is still time but Boris has been completely inept so far. They still think they can walk the tightrope of deaths or economy.  It's like they haven't heard of Wuhan. 

Many are looked after by Grandparents,,of course if it can happen for what ever reason, I’m not afraid to admit I relied on them heavily when my son was in hospital to look after remaining  siblings at home.

extremely grateful!!

Home projects - shorten the summer holidays - get rid of the October half term , do the same next year if needs be 

It's not even like a B movie!

As HW says, at least he's showing his face. He might be spouting his usual lies but at least he's willing to address the public in person.

Yep id agree with that and that idiot Boris is no where to be seen 

Wonder if the American public believe DT