sorry-long thread
1/ I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but I'm coming to the conclusion that the Plan A of 'herd immunity' is still actually the real (now covert) plan. The alternative expanation is a miserable tale of incompetence so staggering that it's hard to buy..
2/ 'herd immunity' was floated as an idea by johnson in an interview to see how it would fly. Others then stated in interviews that it was indeed the actual policy. The original main 'science advisor' was a psychologist rather than an epidemiologist. Why?
.....
3/ The 'science' of plan A was spinning rather than containing. It didn't go down well, so the the government changed tack (including denying that plan A was ever a plan even though they had previously referred to it as such in interviews), and started to talk about containment.
4/ Private companies and individuals were already enacting responsible measures of closing, limiting and so on. The government followed along, pretending it was their idea anyway. In the meantime, almost every other country had entered a serious lock down phase.
5/ These lockdowns were backed with strong employment guarantees, no questions asked subsidies for people (including self employed) and companies that would otherwise suffer as a result of putting in place strong measures to protect the population.
6/ Ventilators and ppe were being bought, along with testing and strategies to ensure the best possible care for those infected. All of these measures were focused on infection avoidance as well as aiding recovery.
Meanwhile, we squadered the opportunity to learn from this
7/ We dithered about company loans, complex rules for protection of employment and subsides, with little help for the self employed, directing them to the discredited and inadequate UC. Somehow we seem incapable of sourcing ventilators and PPE, but then lie about the reasons why
8/ We seem unable to test our NHS staff. We even still make them pay for parking when at work. This inability to achieve anything to aid the 'stated' strategy other than promises of vague solutions tomorrow or maybe next week are wrapped up a tissue of lies...
9/ ..with odd, dangerous and idiotic brexity references such as 'as an independent trading nation we will make our own', and 'no test is better than a bad test'. A parade of seasoned liars such as Gove are tasked with not giving any straight answers to reasonable questions.
10/ In the meantime, with amazing efficiency,we were able to build vast morgues (which were spun as hospitals - minus new doctors or nurses to staff them) whilst somehow not being able to buy masks for the staff of our existing hospitals (nor even arrange free parking for them)..
11/ Hancock, the CMO guy, johnson and cummings all catch a celebrity version of the disease from which they are able to miraculously recover within a few days, and even keep on working at the same time. Green appears in an interview saying that this clearly proves that ...
12/ ..'even intelligent' people can catch it, thus normalizing the idea that it's all a bit snowflakey to worry about infection, and anyway, if you do, it'll all be just fine and dandy and you'll even be in good company amongst the intellectual elite.
13/ Next the sock puppets arrive, with toby young and tice saying we shouldn't mind an entire generation or two being wiped out because they'll all die anyway in the next, say 2 years, and we should all go back to work and take it on the chin. Farage is wittering on about...
14/ ..police states and JHB thinks that it's perfectly fine to risk infecting her entire family with a potentially fatal disease in return for a couple of cadbury creme eggs. All the usual brexity suspects are out there pushing this 'libertarian' idea that freedom to go...
15/ .. down the pub whenever you feel like it is the best way to beat this thing (the wetherspoon's guy virtually claims his pubs are disease sanctuaries with corona-kryptonite lined walls). All this to float the idea that it's somehow 'non-british' to cower in your house and..
16/ ...that it's your god given right and patriotic duty to go out there and fling your infected snot as far as you can sneeze it.
Johnson's idea to send us all a paper version of a pointless letter we've all already seen, thus wasting 6m of public money, and giving the already..
17/ ...over-burdened postal workers another opportunity to be infected or to superspread to every house in the country is another example of governance by spin rather than constructive action. Even those doctors and nurses and other NHS workers that are risking their...
18/ ...health, sanity and lives to try to keep us safe are now being threatened with disciplinary action if they dare to reveal the reality of the effect of government inaction and incompetence on their safety and their ability to be effective.
19/ So to summarise,
- Teutonic efficiency in building places to die, but staggering incompetence in managing places to recover
- Daily promises of jam tomorrow that never quite appears, being made by those whose only talent is obfuscation and lying without shame
20/ A stated strategy broadly in line with that of most other countries, but with an execution that suggests that 'herd immunity' is still the real objective

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