shyams, on 2020-March-16, 15:10, said:
Hubris might be the right way to describe it, but it's also a case of 'Nimbyism' too. (Not in My Back Yard). All first world countries are just as guilty, Britain, the USA, the countries of the EU, etc. as the recent viral diseases, covid-19, SARS, MERS, Ebola have happened primarily in China and third world countries.
We look from afar thinking it's not going to happen here. As a first world country we should have learnt the lessons of the SARS (another type of coronavirus) outbreak in Canada.
The unpreparedness is shocking, but perhaps more accurately described as 'fatally flawed'. Because nothing of this nature has happened here in the UK, the government has been running around like headless chickens, or ostriches with their heads in the sand, trying to fathom the response.
I'm not blaming the current government, because I don't think Labour or a hung parliament would have dealt with it any better. The problem as you rightly say is this country, and many other western countries, were 'unprepared'.
The seriousness of the covid-19 outbreak is now top of the agenda. And whilst we haven't gone into total lockdown in the UK unlike other countries, that may happen quite soon. It's easy to point the blame with hindsight, but we must also take into consideration that there is probably no easy way to contain both the virus
and keep a degree of normality that doesn't impact on a human level.
Shutting the schools will mean parents will have to look after children than go to work.
Asking people to work from home is just a soundbite as many people cannot work from home.
Asking people to stop going to work wholesale will just impact on their financial lives.
Etc. Etc.
There is not an easy solution...
Edit: I was a passenger in a car and we passed a large supermarket this morning 9am (Tesco) and the car park was full of vehicles, and people were leaving with trolleys rammed full of groceries and essentials. Goodness knows what it was
actually like in the supermarket. From what I could see, nearly every till was open with lines of shoppers queueing. So much for social distancing...
What people forget is that shop assistants (bar people, waiters and waitresses, too) are probably one of the most lowly-paid workers in this country but they have to carry on serving the general public as if nothing has happened, but they are probably at the greatest risk of contracting the virus, and maybe passing the virus on. And if they don't come into work they probably will lose their jobs.