Cracking piece by Warner in the Tele: 

How can the UK’s handling of the pandemic be in any way described as “a success”, the Prime Minister’s depiction of it when he returned from his sick bed? Even as cheerleading pep talk, it lacks all credibility.
...
This peculiarly British mentality is the curse of our post-War economy, and has been horribly exposed for the sham it is by the country’s repeatedly backfooted approach to the crisis.
...
Britain looks as if it is going to end up with the worst of both worlds: the highest death rate in Europe and a completely bombed-out economy to boot. Not a great backdrop to be celebrating the 75th anniversary of VE Day.
...
Yet if there is one good thing that might eventually come out of this almighty mess, it is the realisation that the age of the gifted, winging-it amateur is over. It’s no longer sufficient to see the country through, if indeed it ever was.
...
For the moment, Johnson is riding high in the polls, confirming the old rule that at times of crisis, people are desperate to put their trust in the presiding government.
...
But once the dust has settled, voters will see the mistakes and the wrong turns; they’ll see the phoney salesman behind the leader. And if he continues to get it wrong, they will punish him.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/05/10/crisis-has-exposed-leaders-blind-optimists-salesmen/

This won't happen if many people still refuse to acknowledge the poor handling of the crisis by the govt and the PM. It's not that different to personal performance really (not just work related), if you don't even acknowledge your mistakes, then you stand little chance of doing better. 

Apparently (FT) NHSX has started building a second tracing app based on the Google/Apple framework. Germany has also switched to the Google/Apple app, but France is still doing its own.

Might sound odd but so am I , the threads on here are a superb read with some good info.

Update on my Uncle - showing signs of improving - still not well but much better than 48-72 hours previous - Apparently the delay in calling for an ambulance clearly didn't help - he is in the  " I'm ok , its nothing" club 

But better news so that's good

On another note ………….I certainly do not like this STAY ALERT message , absolutely the wrong message 

My school has never shut. We work on a rota basis. 

The problem with opening schools fully is not that there is a danger to children - the stats show that there isn't (with of course the exception of children with underlying health conditions and even then the numbers are extremely low) - but that we don't know enough about the ability of children to spread the disease to staff. Given the overwhelming statistical evidence it would make sense to open the schools initially to lower numbers, perhaps year groups on a rota and to use staff that have no underlying health issues and preferably are under 40. The majority of primary school teachers are young women so I don't see that much of a problem with doing that within the next few weeks.

 Good news.

PS: I don't like the new Stay Alert message either.

This is just my ignorant take, but I think we should just wait and see what happens in other countries. Given the inability of science to provide clear guidance on this, it's much better to try and use real world data. We wasted our time advantage in March, we shouldn't do it again, by early June we should have some info from countries that are opening now.

The problem with our lockdown is that not only will the whole of society suffer the economic and medical consequences of shutting down society but also crucially it has absolutely failed to protect the elderly and the sick. 

The lockdown has cost the economy billions yet if some of that money had been more effectively spent protecting the vulnerable we might not be faced with years and years of economic and health consequences across society.

Glad there are signs of improvement with your uncle 

Yes I agree with the message being poorly thought out. I think Sturgeon had it right with keeping the same message as we have now. The fact that the new one is green doesn't help either.

That's fair enough and tbh I don't see schools opening until then at the earliest. 

And here's the new government message officially seen for the first time

Everyone has a role to play in helping to control the virus by staying alert and following the rules.

This is how we can continue to save lives as we start to recover from coronavirus.#StayAlert pic.twitter.com/2z9yl1Fxs4

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 10, 2020

Thanks Steve 

I think NS has got it bang on , her tone hasn't changed and gets the point across well

Once you get to mid June , its hardly worth it as the Summer break is within touching distance , home schooling via apps has worked well for those using them 

As many people have said here, I find the new slogan to be baffling, confusing and premature. The original was very clear and very effective and it probably saved lives.

Talking of perception in other countries, this piece matches what my sister in Greece has been telling me.

Thats is effectively where we were before Lockdown. It’s effectively lifting the lockdown. Lots of ifs and possibles in there. Utterly confused message.

ALSO, how do you stay alert to a virus you can’t see?!

I will not be coming out of lockdown.

Oh dear, it’s disastrous and I predict the back pedalling will happen quickly.

Unless they’re going with the herd immunity approach in which case I’d say the new messaging is pretty much perfect. 

p.s the PM’s message has already been pre-recorded so there won’t be any tweaks based on today’s backlash. 

The stupid British people will bend the hell out of this. They tried with the last message but largely failed. This one is easy for the dumb to break.

We have to take all the advantages we can grab. 

Being a little "behind the curve" on this is a golden opportunity to "sit on our hands" and  see how others do when they slacken off their lock down and learn from their experience.

Q said on 30/12/2022.

Indeed and don't forget that the govt officially advised people to work from home only on 17 March, a whole 10 days after the the number of deaths had started exploding in Italy.

Something that people and pundits don't appreciate is that the whole UK preparation was geared towards a flu pandemic, despite knowing since Jan that this is a coronavirus outbreak. Even the official names mention Influenza, SPI-M stands for Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling and then we have the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B).

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response#expert-groups

How about:- "Do your best folks, it's down to you now. We've done our bit successfully so now you can take over responsibility"

Agree. There are 10% who just don't get it, whatever way you cut it. Been better to use the Defcon scale!

Far too many of these
- “where possible”
- “if you can”

and not any of these
- “must”