UK’s response to crisis has been flawed
THE UK Government has made a mess of its response to the coronavirus, despite advanced warnings, including the highprofile incident involving the Grand Princess cruise ship.
This week, the panicking Secretary of State for Health has appealed on Twitter for people to make ventilators – his lack of professionalism makes me wonder if he thinks they can be made out of egg boxes, cereal packets and double-sided sticky tape.
The Government appears to have finally realised that social distancing and minimising the infection rate may be a better option than infecting hundreds of thousands of people when we have insufficient ventilators at hospitals for the sickest and limited protection for health professionals.
This is what other nations have been doing, with success, particularly in Asia.
The WHO are telling nations to test, test and test again for coronavirus – with commentators suggesting that their comments are aimed at the UK.
Our government seems reluctant to test, protect and reveal the extent of the problem.
Huge holes remain in government policy that is endangering us all.
Our schools remain open, and there are good arguments for this, as well as for closing them in part or in full. However, the risks have not been properly considered by the Government. Should a child fall sick, it’s left for the parents to decide what action to take, whether to isolate the family and to decide when the child is well enough to return to school.
Sick children are not tested for coronavirus – nor are their parents should they feel unwell. The siblings of sick children are still in attendance at schools.
It seems to be only a matter of time before there is a serious outbreak of coronavirus resulting from poor policy decisions related to schools.
We need a policy here in Wales so that all children who fall sick are tested immediately.
The siblings of a sick child must not attend school until it’s confirmed by a doctor that the illness is not coronavirus.
We must adopt the precautionary principal in our daily lives – and so too must the decision-makers responsible for the health and welfare of children and their families. No child should be in attendance at school when a close family member may be infected.
The Welsh Government needs to act today to keep children and their families safe from this virus. It’s clear the NHS is insufficiently equipped to deal with this pandemic and government policy is poorly considered and flawed.