OK Compo, I accept you have a degree inside knowledge on this so can you answer two genuine questions:

1. Isn't Public Health England a government body that is supposed to make decisions about protecting public health? Isn't it likely that their decisions are massively influenced by government guidance on spending?

2. If the UK government were the first to make a bulk order how on earth are other countries so far ahead in their testing efforts? Doesn't it have to be because they either bought in advance, presumably heeding the advice of their own PHE equivalents, or there has been a massive cock up in deployment.

Hold on. Gove, in last night’s press conference, said the delay was due to a shortage of chemicals. Compo says it’s machines. Who do we believe?

Compo what do you make of what Gove said last night about the shortage of reagents for making the testing kits? It has been refuted by the industry saying there is no shortage, they are ready to supply, but haven't been asked. Where does the truth lie?

I'd always favour Compo over Gove. When did Gove ever give you any solid inside information on a Pools related matter? Plus Compo could be wrong about the machines but he isn't an inveterate, cociane addled liar who is very wrong about nearly everything.

On more serious note, the relevant industry body quickly assured everyone that Gove was talking completely made up bollocks.

and so did Dr Hilary Jones on the TV this morning. A well respected doctor I believe.

Yes but the relevant industry body, are they experts?, because remember, Pob told us not to listen to them a few years back

Right basically in order to get a diagnostic answer for the virus you need to extract RNA from the sample. This needs a machine to do in high throughput consistently using magnetic beads in the form of a kit. This then also need plastic wear and ethanol in which to do so. Then the RNA integrity needs to be tested before being amplified (pcr) on a QPCR machine which also takes another kit called a Taqman Probe. All of these items in the workflow are in high demand right across the world. These are also made in different locations creating other issues about transportation and production. However if you don’t have one item in the chain you can’t do it. The extraction machine can do 96 samples in half an hour. Unfortunately there wasn’t a great number of these in circulation in UK as unless you doing lots of DNA Neg Gen sequencing or protein immunoprosipitation you have no need for unless a pandemic happens and you need to extract 1-3000 a day in each location like now

Ok so why do you think three weeks ago the government told us 25000 tests would be done a day and they still aren't? Just liars?

Basically we can get to that when the three hubs are set up the MK one is ramping up however it’s a supply issue. Also USA are lying Trump saying they have done a million tests already is just bollocks. The fact that a key component in this workflow is made in USA can tell you a lot about why the testing in Europe has slowed as USA are starting to get hit. I say that of course allegedly

Compo. My question was rhetorical; Gove, as usual, was speaking from where the sun don't shine (although he thinks it does).

Compo do you know anything about the reagents statement?

What I do know is Spain ordered a fuckton of "rapid" test kits that give a result in minutes with the downside being a reliability ol 80% instead of near 100%. Except that when they received them and checked them their accuracy was only 30%, so they were useless. Don't ask me the technical details of those tests. Compo surely knows the ones I'm talking about and whether the 80% is actually achievable.

so it seems our beloved hero Johnson really is just a lying toad not to be trusted then? Either compo and Montpoolier are correct or they arent. If they are, and I have no doubt they are, then our leaders should be charged with culpible manslaughter.

I dont know about this test, i just know about the PHE one

That is probably why the experts that appear at around 5pm every day keep saying that buying tests that aren't accurate is worse than having no tests at all.

We have to remember that, in the field of covid-19, there are no experts and most of the experts that are being rolled out openly admit to that.

Everyone is in a learning curve and no one has all the answers.

What is important is the majority of countries, if not all, who are involved in beating this are trying to do their best but, and it is a big but, they are all under intense pressure from all angles to come up with answers and solutions immediately and, unfortunately, that only causes confusion and knee jerk solutions.

We have no choice but to follow guidance and accept mistakes will be made.

Working together globally, keeping mistakes to a minimum, resisting witch hunts and finger pointing and generally apply a calm and collected approach will achieve the best results. When it is over will be the time to critically analyse the performance of those involved to see which lessons have to be learned.

Meanwhile all I can do is carry out the only real role assigned to me and that is concentrating on curtailing the spread of the virus and I am doing that to the best of my ability.
If everyone, across the World, in whatever field of expertise they operate, do so to the best of their ability, then we have a chance.
Concentrating on anything else, at this point, is fruitless and a waste of valuable energy in my opinion.
Keep safe everyone.

I've been scared and saddened for most of this. I finally got angry yesterday; watching the press conference with its constant steam of platitudes and weasel words while all the while failing to address the questions. All the timescales were vague, suggesting there is no plan here, just do stuff and hope for the best. It was all, 'at some point in the near future', 'of course we can learn from...'. Meanwhile, people are dying.

I am absolutely certain our NHS staff should walk out. Adamant.

To me this is a modern day equivalent of our so called leaders sending thousands of soldiers over the barricades into no mans land to certain death.

Yet here we are in the modern world 2020 sending thousands of health workers into war (not my words) deliberately without the correct protective equipment and then threatening them if they don’t. What next? Shoot them in the back?

Matt Hancock should be in prison.

We have to remember that, in the field of covid-19, there are no experts and most of the experts that are being rolled out openly admit to that.

Everyone is in a learning curve and no one has all the answers.

What is important is the majority of countries, if not all, who are involved in beating this are trying to do their best but, and it is a big but, they are all under intense pressure from all angles to come up with answers and solutions immediately and, unfortunately, that only causes confusion and knee jerk solutions.

We have no choice but to follow guidance and accept mistakes will be made.

Working together globally, keeping mistakes to a minimum, resisting witch hunts and finger pointing and generally apply a calm and collected approach will achieve the best results. When it is over will be the time to critically analyse the performance of those involved to see which lessons have to be learned.

Meanwhile all I can do is carry out the only real role assigned to me and that is concentrating on curtailing the spread of the virus and I am doing that to the best of my ability.
If everyone, across the World, in whatever field of expertise they operate, do so to the best of their ability, then we have a chance.
Concentrating on anything else, at this point, is fruitless and a waste of valuable energy in my opinion.
Keep safe everyone.[/quote]



Good post mr derwent.

George Osbourne, that darling of the left, has gone on record saying parliamentary scrutiny and an effective leader of the opposition is vital right now. Ensuring the government is doing the right thing is massively important in a crisis. That’s not to say Everyman knows more than experts, rather that the choices made right now should be scrutinised, now, not later.

To be fair to him he also joyously said that he has a plan for the PPE.

That's alright then. He has a plan.

I have one too. I bought £10k of PPE through my company yesterday to give to Somerset NHS.

[quote="Watching from afar"]I am absolutely certain our NHS staff should walk out. Adamant.[/quot

I know you are after a bite so here is one..................FUCKING IDIOT.

Another bite............AND YOU SHOULD BE SHOT AND I VOLUNTEER TO PULL THE TRIGGER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>NOW FUCK OFF.

I’m not sure he’s after a bite it’s just the realty of this situation.

Front line staff after going to die, a lot of them. It’s horrific.

So the guy is encouraging the NHS staff to walk away.......do you also see that as the answer??????

Iam trying to protect my wife who is in the front line. I will let you off with your post.

Although you could give me your solution.

Of course not but I can see why people feel like that. Imagine it was a member of your family going onto the front line without protection? This is something we should be very angry about. It’s criminal negligence.

They are building warehouses for people to die in and makeshift morgues all over the shop yet until March 12th our governments plan was infect 60-80% of the population to build immunity because they knew the health service that the government has decimated for decade couldn’t cope, and they thought money was more important than ‘a couple of hundred thousand pensioners who will die soon anyway’.

On March 12th they realised they had set a path for catastrophy.

It’s fucking repulsive.

Yet the UK still isn’t close to being locked down.

Would you put FIFA on the list PJ?


https://www.business-humanrights.org/en ... irus-cases

A) What has that got to do with FIFA? The industrial area has nothing to do with Qatar 2022.

B) This is the fucking hypocrisy of the West. Construction workers are still being sent to work in London on public transport that is still open!!! The industrial area in Doha has been on more stringent lockdown than other parts that is true as the majority of cases (only two deaths here so far) were traced to that area by testing everyone but by all accounts they have been looked after to greater extent than they normally are. I see far more evidence here of the want to preserve human life. My wife is a nurse by original profession and she is quite happy by how Qatar is treating people who is in the past they have not treat so well.

Don’t let facts get in the way of stinking warraboutism and racism, PJ

if only everyone 12 months ago could have seen into the future we would not have had the present problem. what on earth would anyone develop tests or vaccines for something that had not existed. if someone really had all the answers to the present virus then please step forward as i,m sure the health service and government would love to hear from you.

No one saw this coming , but the government stood and watched while the pandemic took hold elsewhere, when it did reach our backdoor, they dithered initially , that will result in many unnecessary deaths. They can be forgiven as long as they learn from this , when the next pandemic comes along we will be prepared with warehouses stocked up with all the necessary equipment , I doubt they will though , I mean have they even dealt with all the Grenfell style tower blocks yet?

No one is making that point. The point being made is twofold. 1. The NHS has been underfunded due to austerity. We’d have had more capacity if this hadn’t been done. 2. We had due warning about this, and the government did not use that time. Time that will prove crucial. My employer sent most of its workforce home two weeks before the government took decisive action. They displayed leadership. It was also a tough choice to make, given lots of staff were on strike immediately before this. The students were already pissed off, yet the University took the tough decision to cancel face to face teaching. That’s leadership. What this government did was dither. That dithering will cost lives.

And imagine one of your family unable to go to hospital because there weren't any NHS staff cos they've all walked out.
It has got to be the worst ever suggestion on here.
If there is a fault, it certainly isn't the sick to blame and yet the care they need is taken away from them by this demand, resulting in an untold number of unnecessary deaths.
I fail to see how anybody can advocate this or even support/condone it.
Madness personified.

And as for seeing it coming, Gus O’Donnel (former Cabinet Secretary) was on the news last night and he said a global pandemic was top of the list for risk planning. We have a machinery for planning for civic emergencies. We should have a plan in place for these events. I play cricket with a guy who does this. What do you think he’s been solely focused upon for the last three years? Anyone like to hazard a guess? A hint; it wasn’t his day job.

In an ideal World we should have a plan in place for every eventuality but once you have all these plans somebody has to prioritise them and that's when the problems start. In the eyes of some he will be heralded for his foresight and praised to the rooftops but in other quarters his head will be called for.
You can't please all of the people all of the time
There is no such thing as the perfect man who gets everything right.
The man who never made a mistake never did anything.
There are millions of people involved with this crisis and we are all scared that eventually we will be a death statistic or are close to someone else in the same category.
We all want to protect them, including Matt Hancock.
The man needs all the help he can get and more and is being advised from all quarters, bombarded with how he should do this and how he should do that and how he isn't or wasn't prepared. Some people want him imprisoned. He could be replaced tomorrow but by whom and with what guarantees. The Yanks are bragging about the numbers they are testing and yet their death rate is phenomenal. Who are we going to blame for that and is that person going to the gallows.
The only positive thing we can do is pull together, watch out for each other and keep the inevitable mistakes/cockups to a minimum.
We need to put the rope away or who the hell will want the job.

I would blame Trump for that.

The UK and US and have treat this ‘differently’ to the rest of the World.

I wonder which two places are going to be the worst effected at the end of this?

Interesting chart:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/infect ... d19-curve/

Trump is the obvious candidate and he may be the real candidate and even if he was dumped this afternoon there is no guarantee things would get better.
The statistics are in abundance, coming out of our ears in fact but how level is the playing field, country by country.
If any one country has mastered this we should all be clamouring to copy it but that doesn't seem very popular. Is that because of scepticism in relation to the accuracy of data
What it tells me is that no one has the answer..............not yet anyway.
When the answer does emerge it will be the US who discovered it or so they will claim.
Then the spotlight will be trained on why it started and who is responsible.
And then the shit WILL hit the fan.

Nothing to see here just our government telling outright lies about missed E Mails to cover their backs;

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... ssion=true

A former MP was on tv the other day, saying that they had a mock pandemic exercise in 2016, the dossier from which has never been put into the public domain. In this dossier he said , it states that Britain as it stands ( 2016 ) would be unprepared for a pandemic due to a chronic lack of ventilators amongst other things.

More ventilators were never acquisitioned.

Somewhere, somehow Jeremy Corbyn will get the blame.

Doesn't surprise me. Civil contingencies and emergency planning work has focused upon Brexit for the last 3 years.

And Tony Blair, of course. I once saw a documentary about Hong Kong going over to China and the top comment was "This was Tony Blair's fault", when the process was initiated in the mid 80s.



...that escalated quickly.

Well what a lot of people haven't really brought up yet is how this'll affect the third world when it reaches there. I've heard things about places like Central African Republic only having only three ventilators, factor in they'll have worse immune systems and health care anyway, this virus could last for a very very long time and the western world could be very lucky.

They don't have 5g there yet so will be ok...

The grumpy old sod has gone very quiet but you're right he is to blame. Hope that makes you feel better.
Really though I hope he is keeping safe.

Thought Hancock and his crew where brilliant tonight but of course if you are a dyed in the wool leftie who just wants to cause dissent then I presume you'll disagree.
The question is really...........do you want the government to fail in this venture and kill thousands just because your far left, momentum led ideals have been rejected by the electorate or are you going to wake up, realise you are a citizen of this wonderful country with it's wonderful NHS and get behind the only people capable of beating this virus. Can you imagine your man Corbyn with his "I know which way I want to go but I am not telling you what it is " attitude being in charge. Your bitter ideals are dead John, just admit it mate and get behind the effort. You are brilliant at criticising but when it comes to realism you are very second rate. Stick to collecting football data mate and leave the decision making to the adults.

The arguments of 'this is a wonderful country we must vote Tory' or 'get behind them they are at least doing something' or 'you have to support them because they are in power during a crisis' or 'support the government in the countries hour of need' or 'we have to get behind the government because people will die' are all Bollocks.

They are self serving bastards who are putting their rich overlords and themselves before the normal people.

Stop voting for these fucking twats.