#Coronavirus: Can commendable competence emerge from astonishing incompetence in the UK?

It’s damning incompetence all round

Every day appears to be overcast with a Coronavirus cloud, in the news, in our cities, in our limitations and expectations.

In the middle of this pandemic what is becoming obvious is the need for competence in government with the wherewithal to grapple with a complex and complicated issue that is presently impacting on lives in unprecedented ways. [The Irish Post - Virus crisis reveals Boris Johnson's astonishing incompetence]

It is literally impossible to deploy the kind of glib political spin that has been the stock in trade of the people who constitute our current UK government headed by Boris Johnson. People need answers to questions to which the usual obfuscation or verbosity with sophistry will not pass the muster. [Yahoo! News - Coronavirus: Two-thirds of Brits think the government has badly handled COVID-19 testing]

The numbers are real people

Today, the UK registered the 4^th highest global death toll of 569 in the last 24 hours of people who succumbed to the COVID-19 virus bringing the 7^th most deaths of 2,925 in a country that comes the 8^th in the number of confirmed cases of 34,006. In the numbers and percentages game, there is a fatality rate of 8.6% and a recovery rate of 0.5% where China and South Korea have recovery rates of 93.7% and 58.4% respectively. [COVID19INFO.live]

Screen captured from https://covid19info.live/

To suggest that the management of the pandemic in the UK has been abysmal would almost be forgiving, look at the statistics as each an individual, each person named and their survivors accounted for constitutes probably in a majority of cases an avoidable tragedy visited upon UK residents and citizens by their own leaders.

Before we lose the context of what is happening in our country, we need to refresh our minds with what Boris Johnson said in early March.

Is death so insignificant to them?

“That’s where a lot of the debate has been and one of the theories is, that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures.”

“I must level with you, level with the British public, more families, and many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”

Blog - Thought Picnic: The vulnerable to be martyred to the Coronavirus in the UK

These are the people who when the Prime Minister allowed the COVID-19 to move through the population with taking draconian measures like the lockdown, took it on the chin and died before their time.

You can only wonder how many more will take it on the chin before the government really does come to grips with this pandemic by scaling up tests for the infected and all frontline staff acquires and distributes PPE to all that need it at the point of contact with the public, and ensure hospitals are adequately equipped with ventilators at the point of need.

I still hope for better

I want to believe that this government can rise to the occasion as they are the ones in charge with the responsibility for which they must ultimately be held accountable. Their need to be truthful, honest and scrupulous cannot be overstated or we would lose confidence in them. [Reuters - Under pressure, UK government promises 100,000 daily coronavirus tests]

People are dying daily and much as one can readily blame them for criminal carelessness and the recklessness that has unnecessarily endangered lives our of lethargy, inertia and unpreparedness, one would hope they are more aware of the gravity of the task ahead of them to find the means to excel beyond their heretofore cack-handed gross ineptitude. I wish them all the success and there can be no refuge in excuses anymore.