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How did Britain become the country with the most deaths in covid-19 in Europe? Criticism is growing against the country’s strategy and many of those fighting on the front line feel betrayed by the government, according to an expert. But among voters, Boris Johnson is still popular.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far been successful in the crown crisis, despite mounting criticism of his strategy to combat the virus outbreak.
The prime minister missed five crisis meetings at the start of the pandemic.
A high-ranking coronary adviser has been forced to resign since he violated quarantine rules, in which he himself was involved and developed, to meet his lover.
The UK has more than 30,000 deaths in covid-19, which is the highest number in Europe.
Now criticism is against the British strategy to deal with the outbreak of the virus. The situation “is like a nightmare from which you cannot wake up, where you ended by your own stupidity,” for example, the Italian Corriere della Serra writes. And under the headline “Generation’s Greatest Failure,” Australia’s The Sydney Morning Herald asks if things went wrong.
Even at home, experts, teachers, and healthcare professionals have conducted stinging assessments of what is generally perceived as incompetence from the highest level. Among other things, the government has been criticized for the lack of protective equipment in medical care and a slow response capacity at the beginning of the outbreak.
“How the hell did we end up here?” Opposition leader Keir Starmer, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked earlier this week.
Both Johnson and Health Minister Matt Hancock, who was ill on covid-19, has been criticized for failing to build the British defense against the epidemic, despite many early warning signs. The scenarios that the UK had analyzed before the coronavirus appeared focused mainly on the flu.
– Most people agree that we lost five weeks at first. And the planning that was done was for something similar to the Spanish disease, says Catherine Barnard, a law professor at the University of Cambridge.
– Another problem is the rapid fluctuations in government policy. The original plan was to do a lot of testing, then quit and close the UK.
Johnson has always maintained that the right decision was made at the right time and that the government followed scientific advice. At the same time, its top scientific advisers have just acknowledged that the UK failed with the ambition to test extensively at first, because it simply lacked capacity. The virus spread throughout the undiscovered country and the WHO chief described him as the Briton trying to extinguish a blindfold covered fire.
The government is very leaning against the advice of the scientific advisory group Sage. It is also a way to release some of the responsibility, to some degree, says Barnard.
– In time, there will be a public investigation into crisis management, but it will take several years. However, the government is already working on its excuses, he says.
– They will blame the experts and say it was their fault, not the politicians.
– 30,000 dead is a shocking number. Therefore, it is surprising how the government has had a good crisis in the sense that Johnson’s popularity is so high, says Barnard.
– Some believe that this can be explained in part by the fact that it was elections as late as December and that many Britons do not want to admit that they may have voted badly at the time.
Criticized for slow start
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has spent three intensive days since he became ill on covid-19, has been criticized for not taking the situation seriously enough at the start of the virus outbreak. In early March, when the WHO warned of a possible pandemic, the British government, in particular, advocated for careful hand hygiene.
On March 5, Britain’s first death was recorded on covid-19. In mid-March, the number of cases began to increase dramatically, and contact tracking was abolished – that is, to find and evaluate people who have been in contact with infected people, to a large extent. Instead, the government focused on the strategy of so-called social distancing.
On March 20, schools, bars, restaurants, gyms and similar facilities were ordered closed. Three days later, Johnson said people could only leave home to buy food, exercise, or travel to work if they couldn’t work at home.
Recently, the goal has been to screen 100,000 people per day, but it has been difficult to implement in practice.
Source: AFP
