Forum Topic

Why has no government taken this seriously?

Philippa Bond - thank you for this excellent clip that you posted on the Brentford TW8 Forum of Bill Gates 2015 talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready/up-next?

Jennifer Selig ● 2420d21 Comments

It's expensive, and they would have to raise taxes.  Raising taxes isn't popular and whoever tries it is likely to lose votes.  Winning votes = gaining power.It now becomes clear we haven't made anything like the necessary investment in our hospitals.  We just don't have the staff, the equipment, the training and the beds.I feel we need a different voting system - one that is more representative of the people.  The one we have doesn't represent the people's votes well enough.  Don't ask me what.  It's only when something like this happens that you can see problems more clearly.The last time we were at all prepared I understand it didn't happen and expensive vaccines were left unused.Being more prepared is just a risk we need to take for everyone's safety.  We've learnt that now the hard way and this is just the beginning.Follow the info and stay in and distance yourself.  Look out for for your friends and neighbours.  The whatsapp groups seem a brilliant idea.We should think how we can reduce the stress on our overworked medical staff.  Many of us will have been banned from helping and supporting our families and these key workers the way we would normally eg providing the childcare and home help that we would otherwise provide.

Philippa Bond ● 2419d

It’s a very informative talk. We have been badly let down.

Stewart Jones ● 2419d

Not one country is prepared so let’s stop the blame game, shocking. Bill Gates foundation does some amazing work but he is one successful man not a country. Every country is doing their level best to manage this virus and protect their fellow citizens. Time to talk hard with China about their disgusting behaviour concerning wildlife, markets  and their disgusting eating habits, the world should be telling China to foot the world bill. This would really make them sit up and change, hurt the corrupt government in their pockets.

Jayne Thorburn ● 2419d

What is very sobering is that this is a mild pandemic, relatively speaking.  If we were to get a really serious virus which killed everyone it infected (as FIP does in cats) most people on the planet would die over time.  Whether you think this is good or bad is debateable.  But this episode is a warning that we need to take very, very seriously. We think science fiction films are just that, but they have a habit of intruding on reality - guess we have all seen ones about really deadly pandemics. That could happen. Yes, I know people don't like being scared but nature tells us to be scared in order to avoid.  Every time I saw the terrible fires in Australia I remembered reading 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire'.  And Big Brother is pretty close in China.

Claire Moran ● 2419d

We need to pay more tax, it’s really simple. Now we can no longer have a £6 glass of wine or a £5 cup of coffee, can we see that if that money had gone to help the NH S we would not have to be so terrified? A very small amount from everyone every week is transforming.

Vivienne Cox ● 2419d

Don't think anyone is against paying towards the NHS if it don't get so abused, and is there for us.

Janice Evans ● 2419d

Would make absolutely no difference NHS is too big, unmanageable, more m9mey just means higher wages same structure wouldn’t change the virus issue today at all.

Jayne Thorburn ● 2419d

Think you are probably right Jayne.

Janice Evans ● 2419d

You only have to look at France where employers pay social security of around 55% of gross salary employee pay around 21%.. in additions companies are expected to provide health insurance to cover 30% of all medical expenses. They are no coping I rest my case.

Jayne Thorburn ● 2419d

We wouldn't be constantly bailing out the failures.  We'd have better support for the vulnerable and for those key workers we are all relying on now.

Philippa Bond ● 2419d

Problem is, until there's a crisis like now, nobody gives a thought about the NHS as, for all its shortcomings, it's always there when you need it.  The fact that it's creaking at the hinges and needs a complete health check itself, isn't apparent to most of us.  And it does need more money, but it also needs someone to oversee how that money is wisely spent.  And preferably NOT a politician.

Micki Hawkes ● 2419d

"Problem is, until there's a crisis like now, nobody gives a thought about the NHS."Not true.

Ken Munn ● 2419d

In that case, how come it's been so easy for the government to starve it of funding for the past ten years.

Micki Hawkes ● 2419d

Many campaign groups like Keep Our NHS Public (national) and local groups like Save Our Hospitals - now renamed Hammersmith and Fulham Save Our NHS have been wringing their hands in worry for years. They have said, but no one has listened, that we need to keep more acute beds and more acute hospitals. McKinsey have appropriated Dept of Health policy so that managing "patient flow" in hospital beds is the only business model. But it will not work for epidemics caused by novel viruses. A patient with Covid-19 pneumonia may be on life-support for anywhere between a few days and three weeks, only to die eventually from multiple organ failure. For more medical information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554776/ and https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/COVID-19-Discharge-criteria.pdf.The TED talk by Bill Gates in 2015, in the wake of the ebola crisis, was a scientifically coherent plea. A shame that the world's major governments (G5 or G20) didn't take the opportunity to plan ahead.

Una-Jane Winfield ● 2419d

I realise that the message that the NHS has been starved of funding for the last ten years is one that we see repeated as fact again and again. This does not make it true. A clear picture of NHS funding over the last decade can be found at https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget.It would, in my opinion, be more accurate to say that the physical pressures on the NHS have escalated over the last decade because the population has both aged and increased in size. However whilst the demand for NHS services has increased funding has not kept pace and efficiency savings demanded by Government have not been delivered in full.Most NHS Trusts are experiencing financial difficulties. Independent commentators have reported that in some cases this has led to rationing of treatments (always a feature of the NHS) and a reduction in the quality of specific services. That is why both the current PM and his predecessor committed their administrations to large increases in funding (as to be fair did other political parties). Whether this is enough is of course a legitimate matter for debate but in the current situation such discussions are surely academic? We are where we are.The Chancellor and PM's pledge to spend "What it takes" to defeat the virus - begs the question of how the NHS will will tackle the back-log of surgery etc that is now accumulating.

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 2419d

Too little, much, much, too late.

Micki Hawkes ● 2419d

Putting in more "money than ever before" means little when as you say the use of the NHS has increased because there are more people than ever before - young and old.There is still a call out for PPE to WHO standards from medical staff who are all working so hard to look after us as well as for the call for extra staff. They normally work very long hours particularly since there is a shortage of staff and they are now having to take intensive courses in areas new to them.Grandparents like me considered vulnerable are now not able to give the childcare, help and support that we could in the past.  There must be many of us in this position.

Philippa Bond ● 2418d

The LibDems, as an example of caring, proposed an extra penny on income tax, ring-fenced for the NHS. There are many elsewhere who care, some even in the Government.

Ken Munn ● 2418d

Didn't get them - or the NHS - very far though.

Micki Hawkes ● 2418d

Perhaps not, but it rather exposes your comment "Problem is, until there's a crisis like now, nobody gives a thought about the NHS" as nonsense.

Ken Munn ● 2418d

People don't understand a lot about the NHS.  If you use it for emergencies you tend to be eternally grateful for the help you have been given and you get on with your life possibly still with a bit of a struggle.  If you use it and your experience is bad you may not want to revisit the experience at all - which is often a shame because that doesn't help to make any changes for the better.Staffing is expensive so there are attempts to reduce the numbers needed for instance by providing air mattresses so that two members of staff are not needed to turn someone whose skin is vulnerable to bed sores.  Only there won't be enough mattresses and you have to ask.  There is an amount of secrecy because otherwise too many would ask...  This sort of thing is repeated again and again.

Philippa Bond ● 2417d