BerrySteph said:

"our politicians are letting us down over our protection and generally doing things quite horrendously badly - and sometimes hijacking our experts into backing them."

Nonsense. The scientists have not been hi-jacked. The Gov is doing what the scientific committees have advised them to do. And the Gov, surprisingly, have done far better than anyone could have expected. 'Things' are not going horrendously badly. They are going as medics and scientists have predicted. 

adwil said:

The scientists have not been hi-jacked.

That's how it looked to me as soon as I saw mini-Trump flanked by Witty and the other one.

38 days he did nothing, missing 5 COBRA meetings (wherein hugely important decisions urgently needed taking and weren't) and he spent 2 weeks in the country with his pregnant girl-friend.

Why the cover-up over deaths among the staff in No 10?

BerrySteph said:

38 days he did nothing, missing 5 COBRA meetings (wherein hugely important decisions urgently needed taking and weren't) and he spent 2 weeks in the country with his pregnant girl-friend.

You obviously read and believe the Guardian.

1. Cobra meetings are not chaired just by the PM. It's often the Minister responsible. 

2. Until it was known that coronavirus was a threat to us, there was no need for Johnson to attend meetings.

The rest of your post is nonsense too.

3. As soon as the risk was upgraded from 'low' to'moderate', Johnson chaired COBRA meetings.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

adwil said:

1. Cobra meetings are not chaired just by the PM. It's often the Minister responsible.  

Cobra has sometimes been chaired by a Minister (eg Foot and Mouth Disease, flooding) and that's fine when there are no really big decisions to be taken.

But in this case, the decisions to be taken were hugely momentous - more so than any decision taken by Churchill. 

And for 38 days, 5 weeks, there was nobody at the helm.

adwil said: The rest of your post is nonsense too. 

Stop wasting our time - tell us about these "Moderate Zionists" who don't believe its right to target and kill children and medics and journalists and the disabled.

BerrySteph said:

"But in this case, the decisions to be taken were hugely momentous "

Only with hindsight. There was no need for the PM to attend meetings  when the risk was 'low'. It would have been a waste of his time and , of course, Hancock kept him informed. You need to remember that previous coronavirus emergencies hadn't affected the UK.

Once the dangers of Covid-19 became more evident and our scientists and medics upped the risk as 'moderate' Johnson attended all the meetings.

adwil said:

There was no need for the PM to attend meetings  when the risk was 'low'. It would have been a waste of his time and , of course, Hancock kept him informed. You need to remember that previous coronavirus emergencies hadn't affected the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51299195

PRESS ASSOCIATION Image captionThe new coronavirus has spread across China and to at least 16 countries globally

The risk was not "low".

The WHO semaphored wildly that it wanted to declare the virus very serious indeed but was muzzled because it had then and has now no independence. 

And my government was nearly as bad at ignoring the WHO as was the US - which explains why, though it seems to have wanted to declare a pandemic immediately, it waited 6 weeks.

Coronavirus: Whole world 'must take action', warns WHO

29th Jan 2020 - Dr Mike Ryan praised China's response to the deadly outbreak, saying: "The challenge is great but the response has been massive."

... WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited China this week, said most people who contracted the virus were suffering only "milder symptoms", but about 20% had severe effects such as pneumonia and respiratory failure.

He said that China "needs the world's solidarity and support," and that "the world is pulling together to end the outbreak, building on lessons learned from past outbreaks."

The director-general added that the WHO "deeply regrets" referring to the worldwide risk from the virus as "moderate" in three reports last week instead of "high". - (Berry says - my emphasis)

He described the person-to-person spread of the illness in Germany, Vietnam and Japan as worrying, and said experts would consider it on Thursday when deciding whether to declare a global emergency.

The risk was not "low".

Oh yes it was in the UK.

The risk was declared  to be low until it was raised to moderate on Feb 28th.

adwil said:

The risk was declared  to be low until it was raised to moderate on Feb 28th.

The risk was always very high. WHO was desperate to declare it that way at the end of January - but couldn't do it until Trump (mostly) agreed to it.

Your bumbling idiocy would tend to make me wonder whether there was malice behind this crisis.

But I'm not taken in. This outbreak, severe though it is, isn't very likely to have any great geo-political influence.

Could even backfire in your face - less travel will make Israel's situation more perilous and public health will make our determination to have biological WMD harder to justify.

BerrySteph said:

The risk was always very high.

Only in hindsight. At the time we did not know how infectious it was or how quickly it could spread. 

adwil said:

Only in hindsight. At the time we did not know how infectious it was or how quickly it could spread. 

Nothing changed when we did discover how infectious it was and how quickly it spread.

BoJo was totally detached and took a fortnight off in the country with his pregnant girl-friend. The number of children he has is a state secret.