I had a relative who flew out to Milan on Saturday and when she landed she was greeted by Immigration officials in Hazmat suits who checked every passenger’s temperature.
She told me that it was scary but also reassuring as the Italians were clearly taking the threat seriously, at that time they had had 2 deaths form the virus in the North.
UK Slow off the Blocks
However, flying back into Birmingham on Sunday morning my relative was amazed that there were no such inspections or any signs of precautions as a whole plane load of passengers disembarked in our second city after flying in from what is arguably the epicentre of the disease in Italy and indeed Europe.
But it gets worse! On Monday she felt a little rough, waking up with a sore throat and a temperature so she phoned the 111 number and described her symptoms, to hopefully get a test to put her mind at rest, before going to work in London.
The woman on the other end of the line said that although the symptoms she described would have led to a medical visit if she had just flown in from China because she was only in Milan there was nothing she or the NHS could do for her! This was despite the fact that the death toll in Italy was rising by the hour and that whole Italian cities were being put into lockdown.
Then on Tuesday morning, Hancock came out with his advice to self-isolate. So, my relative phoned 111 again only to be told to self-isolate and that there were no tests available as the hot line was over run!
This scenario is being repeated all over the UK and it is clear, just as with the floods, that the Government has been slow off the blocks again and ill prepared.
To be fair I know that this is a fast-changing picture but if the Italians could mobilise and lock down cities, cancel football matches, the Venice Carnival and even get Giorgio Armani to cancel his fashion show then why couldn’t the might of the NHS and the UK government get its act together?
Hancock looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights on TV and his performance today made me wonder if he is in some perverse competition to look even more inept than George ‘Useless’ Eustace, the Environment Minister.
It appears that almost every other country reacted quicker than us in banning flights into their countries from China.
However, we the British public and the MSM seem to have accepted this sloth like response.
Well I am sorry I do not think it is acceptable.
I went to a University Graduation ceremony last week and the Vice Chancellor made the point that many of the University’s Chinese students had self-isolated themselves back home in China and were unable to attend but were watching the ceremony via a live stream. I respected and appreciated their sacrifice but if they had wanted to fly in to the UK to attend it would appear that we would have let them without any real screening.
We are an Island state so it should be relatively easy for the government to perform its first duty to its citizens which is to protect them.
We should be banning all flights from landing in the UK from affected areas and we should stop people from making any non-essential flights out of the UK.
All Universities should immediately start screening all of their students and we need to seriously consider cancelling large scale events like theatre and football matches just whilst we understand the scale of the problem and get on top of it.
Let’s not hang about, let’s just do it. There is no time to waste as the Cheltenham Festival is just around the corner where thousands will congregate from all over the UK, Ireland and Europe. It would be the perfect breeding ground to spread the COVID-19 Virus. Decisions on cancelling or rearranging these events need to be taken now.
An overreaction?
Well maybe, however did you see the stock market fall on Monday? That will be nothing compared to what will happen to the whole world economy if this turns into a pandemic. The knock-on effect from China effectively being in a state of industrial shutdown has already started to bite in the automotive industry.
Where is the Useless United Nations in all of this? This busted flush should be organising the united world reaction to this threat.
Yes, I know that thousands die each year from normal flu viruses but that is not a reason to be complacent about another virus is it?
Where is Boris in all this too?
I understand why the flood victims are angry that he has not visited the areas where their homes and lives have been ruined. I know he is ‘frit’ of looking like a clown again because he can’t use a mop. However, I don’t want to see him cleaning up. I want to see and hear him in the flood areas promising that this nonsense won’t happen again and that we are going to stop building on flood plains and massively invest in dredging and flood relief.
Likewise, I want to see him on TV telling us the British public what is exactly going on with Coronavirus. We have an absolute right to know the scale of the problem.
What do they do in these Cobra emergency meetings as it looks to me as if they couldn’t organise a “booze” up in a brewery let alone tackle the problems.
I thought that the politicians and emergency services did both table top exercises and real physical rehearsals for how they would cope with such an epidemic.
I get the feeling that at the moment that politicians around the globe are not telling the public what is really going on. I certainly don’t believe the figures for deaths that the Chinese have given out and I get the clear impression that politicians are treating us the public like mushrooms, keeping us in the dark and feeding us bullsh*t.
This tactic as per usual will rebound on them as we are already seeing in Italy with supermarket shelves being emptied by panic buyers. These people clearly think that they can’t trust their Government to protect them so they are taking their security and future into their own hands.
Meanwhile as I write this column Italy has now confirmed the total number of cases has risen to 288 with seven confirmed deaths. Austria and Croatia is reporting cases and a hotel in Tenerife is in lockdown too trapping over a thousand people in the hotel.
As half term finishes and people return from winter skiing holidays and sunshine breaks they are going to be looking at spending at least 14 days in quarantine. The only answer is to stop anyone else travelling out of the UK, so that we don’t risk them bringing COVID-19 back in to the UK.
Tough decisions need to be taken now. So, in a word, Boris get your finger out and get this sorted NOW.
