StuartO Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 There are new reports today of a Frenchman having been confirmed as COVID-19 positive on a swab taken in December (which was still in storage in the hospital lab and was retested recently) and he says he had not travelled anywhere. It makes sense that there might well have been spread of the virus within developed (and some other) countries long before it was known that a major outbreak of a dangerous new virus was underway. Even by the time our FCO was quaranteening the people they repatriated from Wuhan in the accommodation block on the Wirral the virus was probably already spreading in our community and the opportunity to contain the outbreak, as our Government attempted initially, might turn out to have been doomed. There's going to be a lot to learn about whether and how virus pandemics can be prevented in the future, especially if we resume the high level of international business and leisure flying which was going on in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 I think its highly likely that COVID19 has been spreading for months before China was forced to admit its existance *-) ......... There's only one country to blame for this pandemic CHINA >:-( ......... Although some on here would prefer Boris to get the blame ;-) ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpstart Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Even even chief scientific officer has said we should have locked down sooner, so we were slow , no two ways about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 Other news is that huge numbers (many millions) of people were returning to UK (and perhaps foreigners travelling to UK) during what we now know to have been a period of high risk that some of them were bringing another dose of infection from COVID-19 into UK with them, none of whom were being screened in any way, relying on them to self-isolate if they developed symptoms. UK-resident Brits were not even being discouraged from leaving the Country to go on holiday by air during early March because the FCO had not issued advice against all non-essential travel. There are undoubtedly some serious lessons to be learned about the speed with which it is necessary to act if there is to be any chance of "containing" an outbreak - and that if large scale international travel on anything like its previous scale is to resume, that this might make containing the next pandemic to come along impossible. These are of course lessons for the benefit of future planning and we are where we are, so the important thing at the moment is to concentrate on keeping the number of new cases and deaths coming down so we can start testing and tracing again to avoid the risk of a second peak - and of course solving the PPE problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 StuartO - 2020-05-05 1:18 PM Other news is that huge numbers (many millions) of people were returning to UK (and perhaps foreigners travelling to UK) during what we now know to have been a period of high risk that some of them were bringing another dose of infection from COVID-19 into UK with them, none of whom were being screened in any way, relying on them to self-isolate if they developed symptoms. UK-resident Brits were not even being discouraged from leaving the Country to go on holiday by air during early March because the FCO had not issued advice against all non-essential travel. There are undoubtedly some serious lessons to be learned about the speed with which it is necessary to act if there is to be any chance of "containing" an outbreak - and that if large scale international travel on anything like its previous scale is to resume, that this might make containing the next pandemic to come along impossible. These are of course lessons for the benefit of future planning and we are where we are, so the important thing at the moment is to concentrate on keeping the number of new cases and deaths coming down so we can start testing and tracing again to avoid the risk of a second peak - and of course solving the PPE problems. From what I can tell, those travelling into the UK are STILL able to just pretty much wander in, and at the moment are just given a leaflet on what to do if they feel unwell!? (I stand to be corrected if I am wrong?) There was talk last week of implementing "stronger measures" but even those were going to be little more than telling in-comers to stay at home for 14 days!.. yeah! that'll do it!? There is murmurings of quarantining folk in the future? but at the moment they(the Government) seem happy to hide behind "..the science doesn't yet show.." with some of the difficult decision it is faced with. (On one hand the science bods on the briefing panels have been telling us how one infected person can give it to three people and before we know it we're at 100s & 1000s etc..and the next we're being told that the numbers of folk that travel into the UK, won't make enough difference to matter? ?...Make your minds up! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 The reason it stopped being worthwhile screening or quarantining arrivals was that we had switched to Lockdown for everyone, to which new arrivals also became subject on arrival, to try to flatten the curve, which succeeded. As we switch back to test and trace to apply additional pressure on the outbreak it will presumably once more become desirable to test arrivals on arrival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Lessons need to be learned? It seems they haven't been in terms of flights. This was a packed Air Lingus flight yesterday from London to Dublin. How is that even possible under lock down with safe distancing rules? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Barryd999 - 2020-05-05 2:29 PM Lessons need to be learned? It seems they haven't been in terms of flights. This was a packed Air Lingus flight yesterday from London to Dublin. How is that even possible under lock down with safe distancing rules? Maybe they gave them all a leaflet?..and asked them to "promise" to stay home once they'd landed? (or maybe it doesn't count if the planes are heading away from the UK? ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 pepe63 - 2020-05-05 2:35 PM Barryd999 - 2020-05-05 2:29 PM Lessons need to be learned? It seems they haven't been in terms of flights. This was a packed Air Lingus flight yesterday from London to Dublin. How is that even possible under lock down with safe distancing rules? Maybe they gave them all a leaflet?..and asked them to "promise" to stay home once they'd landed? (or maybe it doesn't count if the planes are heading away from the UK? ) An fm on another forum, his wife recently flew back from Thailand to UK early last month. All passengers were screened for symptoms any with above normal temps were refused flights and told to isolate. She landed in UK and passed through border control with zero checks. Pelmet was probably given a leaflet.....but wouldn't read it if there was more than a one liner tweet and no pictures. :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Bulletguy - 2020-05-05 3:10 PM Pelmet was probably given a leaflet.....but wouldn't read it if there was more than a one liner tweet and no pictures. :-| Nope we weren't given a leaflet.......but we didn't need one as being a responsible citizen we automatically self isolated for 14 days ;-) ......... Unlike your Commie Chum John52 who doesn't think the rules apply to him *-) .......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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