Double number of deaths due to political ideology
Prof Neil Ferguson today said that number of Coronavirus deaths would have been halved if the lockdown had only been brought in a week earlier.Many people were calling for a lockdown earlier than this. It was obvious that we would have to have one when we could see that every country that the virus was affecting at that time was either in some kind of lockdown or implementing one. (Brazil et al excl)But it was resisted here by people of a conservative persuasion. Boris was under pressure from his MP's, and rank and file membership not to start a lockdown. This was not driven by science but by political ideology. Small government, no collective, look after yourself.The post-mortem will be done at national level but it's important to remember that locally the voices opposed to a lockdown came from our Conservative Councillors.Notably Cllr Sam Hearne who thought it wasn't needed and that we had nothing to learn from the untrustworthy Chinese experience (19th March).And Cllr Joanne Biddolph who was encouraging us all to carry on as normal and get out and shop (21st March)Thank goodness these people are not running the country. But when the post-mortem starts we need to remember that their pressure had an effect and at least 20,000 people extra have died.
Richard Potts ● 2336d7 Comments ● 2336d