Remember the early days of the daily briefs and the ‘R Rating’ number and how often it was mentioned and how it had to stay below one to help prevent the spread of the virus. Remember how it slowly disappeared from the briefs and wasn’t mentioned very much at all?
A quick glimpse at the papers today and we are being told that the latest estimate of the reproduction rate of coronavirus has gone up to between 0.7 and 1.0 across the country and that is what the scientists advising the Government have told them.
I’d like to know what the Government are going to do, they have already admitted this week that they ‘think’ they may have got things wrong in the beginning – sorry but even I ‘know’ they got things wrong, and I’m no scientific advisor! But the R number is rising, and more restrictions are being lifted, something else that doesn’t quite make sense to me.
How about a work colleague who went to Spain on Friday for a long weekend, he now finds himself coming home to a two-week lockdown, my question is why only Spain? And looking at these photos, you can see why they have problems. It is back to the blasé approach I have mentioned.
Even I know the virus is spreading across the globe, and our borders should have been closed to all except returning nationals from day one, but then that’s me! But how will our Government control those returning? As always, I can’t see the police getting involved as they are too stretched as it is! They aren’t even seen on the streets of my town!
I’ve said before that running a country when there is a global pandemic around must be a difficult challenge, but for me, it is still a challenge that I believe this Government have failed to control as well as they should have. I also can’t help but go back to the speech that George Bush gave in 2005 and why world leaders didn’t listen to him – if only they had!
Thank you for reading and stay safe
Here’s George Bush fifteen years ago! Courtesy ABS News