I said there will doubtless be local difficulties - yes, I did read your post.

In an enterprise as giant as the NHS, you have to look at it holistically and statistically, not at what may be going wrong in Margate.

P.S. I am rather more concerned about the delay in producing today's stats - makes me fearful that they are truly awful.

Yes it was. They are so used from Brexit to be telling lies and getting away with it, that they just cannot shake it. I've lost count of the times Hancock has been asked about the lack of PPE in specific hospitals, only for his answer to be 'there are lorries coming as we speak, or they will be there by the end of the week' etc. 

Just the other day, the pillock invited the media to record him carrying boxes of masks as if this is what the NHS staff and the people of this country expect him to do. If he really wants to treat us like that, then perhaps he and the rest of the Cabinet and all their spads should be doing nightshifts at the frontline hospitals without PPE in order to understand and experience what their incompetence really means.

Note to Justin and Xioni - let's try to keep the party politics out of this thread.

Hancock is not a perfect person, but then  who is? - but he is doing his damndest in impossible circumstances.

There are grounds to criticise the government, but the chief ones are that they did not take the situation in the country which caused all this, China, seriously enough in January. If they had appreciated what was likely to unfold, they would have ordered additional PPE then and started the process of getting ventilator supply in the UK ramped up in advance. Their other signal failure was to leave borders open, instead of taking measures to control and quarantine people from an early date!

Are you ever going to post something that doesn't include criticism of the government?

No.

These issues need to be called out for what they are.

It's not party politics, there are no party politics at the moment. It's bad leadership and I couldn't care less which party it is.

But the bad decisions across Europe were taken two to three months ago - all and I mean ALL are playing desperate catch up now.

Yes, as I told you many times Europe has messed up big time too. Although at least they didn't indulge themselves in the herd immunity theories.

So, when the decision is made to give staff free parking your response is yet more criticism? Sorry, that's just mean-minded and unnecessary.

Criticising clear mistakes is one thing; nit picking over trifles is not.

Apart from Sweden.

so Germany is the anomaly rather than the standard. 24th Feb was way too late in the first place - you can’t just magic up global supply of these things in the space of a month. If anyone was late to the party it was the WHO themselves.

Its not mean minded. What is mean minded is the fact that for two weeks this crisis has been unfolding and these NHS workers have been having to pay this charge. It’s unfair and unjust.

Yes, it’s great that they now have this. But like everything this government has been too slow to act and deal with it.

Exactly the point. In normal times Germany has surplus capacity which lies idle. That makes them well placed however, when an epidemic comes along - better placed in terms of ICU, ventilators and PPE than any other country in Europe. Good for them, but they are the exception, not the rule.

Are you making things up again? The following is also from the article you quoted from:

Swedish authorities have said they are not explicitly pursuing a strategy of "herd immunity". Sweden is instead seeking to slow the spread of infections and ensure that its health system does not become overwhelmed. Mr Bildt said the situation on the streets of Stockholm had changed "dramatically" in recent weeks despite the absence of legal restrictions, with far fewer people going outside.

"There is a big risk that Sweden would have to go into quarantine when the health system goes into crisis" Mr Rocklov, an epidemiologist at Umea University, said.

Do you really think HMG started the procurement and the 'wartime' efforts since 24 Feb? I think they've only been at it over the last 2 weeks or so.

They might say that, but it is in effect what they are doing. The fact that the question was explicitly put to them, indicates that in itself.

If the peak is 2 to 3 weeks and cases start to ease , how and when do the Government relax the current restrictions without kicking it off again, certainly more testing times ahead 

EDIT and where are the results ????

Earlier this month, we asked all travellers to self-isolate when they returned to Canada. Today, we are making this isolation mandatory under the Quarantine Act to better protect our most vulnerable. pic.twitter.com/bKLdKh4mEu

— Patty Hajdu (@PattyHajdu) March 25, 2020

Some of the comments underneath that Tweet are priceless.

Not as bad as I feared it might be:

Another 28 people have died from coronavirus in England, according to the latest numbers from the NHS.

This brings the total number of deaths in the country to 414.

Most bizarre , as I have been saying I am still waiting for this BIG jump that people are shouting  about