How effective are the daily COVID-19 Press Conferences?

[CaptainHaddock]

None. Oh apart from the nurses and health care people who have died. Perhaps we could have given them better PPE. Here are some of their faces and stories. Take a look.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...uk-health-workers-who-have-died-from-covid-19

The Guardian say 81 have died. The government say 27. The real figure is, I suspect, higher. No doubt you will say 81 isn't a very big number and isn't a problem. I disagree. We need these people and Johnson and his government have let them down.

Whilst every one of those NHS workers who died is tragic, are you saying the government was directly responsible for their deaths? The vast majority of people who've died with (not from) the virus had underlying health conditions so no-one knows whether these people may have died anyway?

The simple answer is everything. I have a very different personality to Johnson and have had very different professional and private life experiences on which my personality is built. I have an entirely different mindset and outlook on life and I am certainly less casual when it comes to my professional life. I would certainly behave in a more professional manner and try to prepare better even in the short time between the end of January and actual lockdown. I would certainly have locked down sooner than Johnson ( when he told us not go on a cruise) and probably been more prescriptive about what could happen during lock-down.

For all your waffle you're not answering my question. When I asked you what you would have done differently, I mean on what date would you have imposed the lockdown, how strict would you have made it and how many deaths do you estimate might have been averted as a consequence of your actions?

It is clear from your postings that you think Johnson is wonderful and blameless for all these deaths. I disagree.

A very childish comment. Just because I don't slag off Boris Johnson doesn't mean to say I think he's wonderful. I just feel that he and his government are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances and at least are heeding the advice of the medical and scientific experts when the answers are uncertain.

 

[Mogster]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I still standby my theory that the lockdown should have been implemented earlier.


The television announcement from Boris Johnson on the 23rd March was greatly expected but my feelings are that - had BJ stepped in a week earlier to implement the lockdown, then maybe even a small number of deaths could have been avoided.

CJ

What if the lockdown it’s self has caused deaths though? It seems very likely it has. Meanwhile Sweden has quietly carried on with its policy of hygiene and social distancing.

Future reports into the actions of the last few weeks and the consequences are going to make very interesting reading.

 

[bramling]

I don't think Johnson has acted in bad faith. I just think he has been casual, disinterested, been inappropriately jocular and bullish, avoided detail, avoided hard decisions until almost too late, presented information poorly and wasted crucial time that could have been used to mitigate the impact of this situation by not seeming to give much of a stuff.

Without knowing what has truly been going on behind the scenes, I find it hard to agree or disagree with the above. For sure there's clearly a massive issue with PPE particularly within the NHS, however how much of that can be traced back to Boris specifically I'm less sure.

I tend to agree that the lockdown should have been brought in perhaps a week or so earlier, I think there was certainly an element of dither there, although again it's quite possible Boris was dissuaded by the scientific experts as well as people like the police on the basis they didn't (and still don't) really have the ability to enforce it?

Not saying you're wrong on this, just that we perhaps don't at this stage know enough. I'm not necessarily sure anyone else would have done a great deal better. May I think would have been horrendous due to her poor communications ability and flip-flop decision making, Cameron might have been more statesmanlike but would key decisions have been different? Same with Blair.

I also think his cabinet have floundered without him and shown how limited in ability and intellect many of them are.

Completely agree here. There's been a distinct feeling of aimlessness since Boris was diagnosed. I'd like to think that had Boris been around we'd have seen less "confusion" surrounding the lockdown. The press conference appearances have been pretty ineffective, only Hancock has shown some sign of being in his depth. Some of the appearances have been pretty appalling.

I am sure he does now take this very seriously but people have died because of his casual approach. He must know the game might be up for him after this. All his dreams of being ultimate world king collapsing to ashes almost in the moment of victory.

I don't think he's near that point as things stand now. This crisis almost certainly has some considerable time yet left to run, and a lot could happen or not happen in that time. NHS staff deaths (as well as others like bus drivers) will for sure be a massive issue, and rightly so, but to destroy Boris there would have to be clear evidence of something which traces directly and clearly back to Boris's door. Time will tell if that happens. I suspect most people's judgement will be made based on the personal economic impact to themselves personally, I'm not saying that's right but it's what I think will happen.

 

[DarloRich]

Whilst every one of those NHS workers who died is tragic, are you saying the government was directly responsible for their deaths? The vast majority of people who've died with (not from) the virus had underlying health conditions so no-one knows whether these people may have died anyway?

They would all have died at some point just as you and I will.

The big issue is that despite any underlying health conditions the vast majority of those people would not have died on the day they did. Many (most?) of those people would have lived for many more years and have been robbed of more time with their families and friends. That is tragic.

And yes: If the government failed to provide key workers with adequate PPE then they are responsible for those deaths. If the response of the government to the crisis was inadequate then they are responsible for the deaths that inadequacy caused.

Hopefully an honest and open public enquiry will tell us what impact the perceived casual approach of Johnson and his clan has had on lives lost.

For all your waffle you're not answering my question. When I asked you what you would have done differently, I mean on what date would you have imposed the lockdown, how strict would you have made it and how many deaths do you estimate might have been averted as a consequence of your actions?

I would have locked down when Johsnon told us to stay at home with a sniffle and not go on a cruise but that isn't the point.

You asked what I would do differently and I answered that question. My life, outlook and beliefs are vastly different to Johnson so my responsive to a situation would be very different. Your question is essentially: What would you do differently if you were Hitler. Answer: Everything! The fact you don't like that response is not my issue.

A very childish comment. Just because I don't slag off Boris Johnson doesn't mean to say I think he's wonderful. I just feel that he and his government are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances and at least are heeding the advice of the medical and scientific experts when the answers are uncertain.

Actually I agree. Johnson and his chums are doing the best THEY can do. It isn't the best that could have been done by a mature, professional and focused government.

 

[DarloRich]

Without knowing what has truly been going on behind the scenes, I find it hard to agree or disagree with the above. For sure there's clearly a massive issue with PPE particularly within the NHS, however how much of that can be traced back to Boris specifically I'm less sure.

I agree.While it isn't his job to order PPE he sets the tone and direction and he is accountable which is something he has tried to avoid throughout his life.

I tend to agree that the lockdown should have been brought in perhaps a week or so earlier, I think there was certainly an element of dither there, although again it's quite possible Boris was dissuaded by the scientific experts as well as people like the police on the basis they didn't (and still don't) really have the ability to enforce it?

I think he was late in making the decision. Things like Cheltenham and that Livepool v Athletico match should not have gone ahead, if only from a psychological point of view. Same with travel bans from infected places and banning public gatherings

I don't think Johnson is a bad person or evil or anything like that. I just think he isn't the right personality to be PM. I don't think he has the tools or the desire/ability to invest the capital needed.

Not saying you're wrong on this, just that we perhaps don't at this stage know enough. I'm not necessarily sure anyone else would have done a great deal better. May I think would have been horrendous due to her poor communications ability and flip-flop decision making, Cameron might have been more statesmanlike but would key decisions have been different? Same with Blair.

Cameron and Blair look and sound right and know how to behave. Johnson doesn't That might be enough to maintain confidence.

Completely agree here. There's been a distinct feeling of aimlessness since Boris was diagnosed. I'd like to think that had Boris been around we'd have seen less "confusion" surrounding the lockdown. The press conference appearances have been pretty ineffective, only Hancock has shown some sign of being in his depth. Some of the appearances have been pretty appalling.

I feel sorry for Hancock. It is painful to watch how much he is struggling ( and to be fair I think he really does care, seems to have some humanity in him and is working as hard as he can) but he has been given the task of standing in the Fulda gap and turning the red army back with a pop gun. As for the rest of them! Look at who has been home secretary and foreign secretary in the past then look at Raab and Patel. They aren't in the same league. When we needed mature sensible statesmen we got this lot. Christ. It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

The answers to the question of who is in charge were laughable. Raab should have just said: Until the PM is fit enough to return to work I am in charge.

I don't think he's near that point as things stand now. This crisis almost certainly has some considerable time yet left to run, and a lot could happen or not happen in that time. NHS staff deaths (as well as others like bus drivers) will for sure be a massive issue, and rightly so, but to destroy Boris there would have to be clear evidence of something which traces directly and clearly back to Boris's door. Time will tell if that happens. I suspect most people's judgement will be made based on the personal economic impact to themselves personally, I'm not saying that's right but it's what I think will happen.

That it happened is the link to him. The PPE situation alone is disgraceful. Pictures of health care workers wearing bins bags are just wrong. How can we not make gowns in this country? How can the government have let down the very people they are relying on to keep us alive? It is shameful and Johnson is accountable for that.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Indeed even I as a private individual started my campaign against COVID19 on the 12th March when I broke the news to my Mother that I wouldn't be driving 50 miles to see her for her birthday. She was a little quiet on the call as I think she was upset but now she can see my point and is grateful.

If either of my parents die I can selfishly say to myself that there is a zero percentage chance it was down to my actions.

 

[HH]

Indeed even I as a private individual started my campaign against COVID19 on the 12th March when I broke the news to my Mother that I wouldn't be driving 50 miles to see her for her birthday. She was a little quiet on the call as I think she was upset but now she can see my point and is grateful.

If either of my parents die I can selfishly say to myself that there is a zero percentage chance it was down to my actions.

I realised that the government response was lacking at about the same point, but I'd only just got out of hospital (cancer surgery). I know by March15 I was tweeting like a madman about what the government was doing wrong (and I normally tweet only under blue moons). I'm not criticising Boris and his minions with the benefit of hindsight, it was damn obvious to anyone with half a brain that he wasn't treating it seriously.

 

[VauxhallandI]

I realised that the government response was lacking at about the same point, but I'd only just got out of hospital (cancer surgery). I know by March15 I was tweeting like a madman about what the government was doing wrong (and I normally tweet only under blue moons). I'm not criticising Boris and his minions with the benefit of hindsight, it was damn obvious to anyone with half a brain that he wasn't treating it seriously.

My thoughts were that hell was breaking loose in Italy; it doesn't take a degree in biology to work out that the thing is in the post to my front door.

 

[Steam Man]

These briefings are getting a bit repetitive because there’s nothing new to say the government have been very slow to get things moving maybe they should’ve lockdown earlier I think the only way out of this lockdown is mass testing.

 

[Darandio]

I think the only way out of this lockdown is mass testing.

Good luck with that one. At the rate we're going it will only take 7-8 years to get the whole population tested.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Good luck with that one. At the rate we're going it will only take 7-8 years to get the whole population tested.

That's not how it works, there's no point randomly testing everyone, you test people who report symptoms, then contact trace and test those they've been in contact with.

 

[HH]

That's not how it works, there's no point randomly testing everyone, you test people who report symptoms, then contact trace and test those they've been in contact with.

Like South Korea and Germany did from the off. However, it is now apparent that we were in no position to do likewise. Still, I think we could have done a lot better - it seems likely that there is a failure on the organisational side here - we have lots of drive through centres that few are using; I mean how many care home occupants can drive?

I think this quote probably says what the root cause is:

One former Tory minister says the Department of Health and Social Care had suffered from a "lack of the right skilled commercial people, a lack of risk appetite, a huge bureaucracy and a tick box culture".

(from BBC)

 

[Domh245]

Even now that we have a moderate amount of test capacity, the issue seems to be that the Govt don't know who they want to test - at the moment they're only testing people who've been hospitalised and key workers showing symptoms - presumably opening it up to the next tier of people eligible for testing would swamp the system

 

[JonathanH]

Things like Cheltenham

How much evidence is there that this actually made matters worse? There doesn't appear to be a concentration of cases in the immediate area. While there appear to be stories of people picking it up there, how much more concentrated was this than anywhere else?

There will probably never be data to prove or disprove anything about Cheltenham that could ever be pinned on the government.

 

[DarloRich]

How much evidence is there that this actually made matters worse? There doesn't appear to be a concentration of cases in the immediate area. While there appear to be stories of people picking it up there, how much more concentrated was this than anywhere else?

There will probably never be data to prove or disprove anything about Cheltenham that could ever be pinned on the government.

Most of the crowd will be from elsewhere and so tracing would show if they had attended the event.

 

[HH]

How much evidence is there that this actually made matters worse? There doesn't appear to be a concentration of cases in the immediate area. While there appear to be stories of people picking it up there, how much more concentrated was this than anywhere else?

There will probably never be data to prove or disprove anything about Cheltenham that could ever be pinned on the government.

But maybe they will be able to trace the effect of 3000 supporters from Madrid at Liverpool...

Moderator note: Have we exhausted the topic of How effective are the daily COVID-19 Press Conferences? If anyone has anything more to say on that subject, please do...

At the moment this thread is duplicating the discussion in other threads

 

[Darandio]

It's been a while since this thread has been active, I can only assume it's because nobody is bothering watching them any more? If not, i'm really not surprised.

Sadly X amount of people have died.
We've missed the testing target again but will do 72 trillion by the end of the month.
Use of public transport is falling.
Question dodging.

Then rinse and repeat tomorrow.

 

[BJames]

It's been a while since this thread has been active, I can only assume it's because nobody is bothering watching them any more? If not, i'm really not surprised.

Sadly X amount of people have died.
We've missed the testing target again but will do 72 trillion by the end of the month.
Use of public transport is falling.
Question dodging.

Then rinse and repeat tomorrow.

I had a brief tune in to today's one. Not much added whatsoever, nothing against George Eustice but he really hasn't said anything at all today (although I would imagine it probably would have been the same regardless of who stepped up). It must have been less than four minutes before he'd already passed over to Prof Steve Powis for the daily slides. Which are freely available on the gov.uk website.

It was useful for a while when we had a few different figures coming on scene - Hancock/Raab/Patel/Gove/Shapps/Williamson/Eustice as then we could get a proper questioning about the different sectors underway. Now though, it's only really Hancock's briefings that are proving useful - arguably even more than Johnson's first briefing back last week.

I agree that they aren't needed all day every day. Especially as Johnson is making the speech Sunday evening - are we going to have a briefing at 4pm as well, for the unfortunate minister to have to deal with the same questions from the media about what we can expect in three hours time?

Oh, and yes - the new questions from the members of the public. Which are generally given a token response by the minister too.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Last time there was a Bojo evening "address" there wasn't also a press conference.

 

[BJames]

Ah - I had forgotten that. That does make sense.

 

[MDB1images]

Deleted

 

[Qwerty133]

I always felt the fact so many of the people of the UK was dieing of this virus that perhaps that alone was worthy of a daily Government press conference.
Sadly it for me now achieves little as in my opinion the level of information is freely available elsewhere, the level of questions from our national journalists are woeful and the ability of the minister not to answer the question is high and easily achievable.

Maybe it's time for more from Parliament and a once a week televised address 'press conference' with the PM, Health Secretary and Chanceller all appearing with an update on their specialist area and answering proper questions from 3 questioners representing all journalists but who are in the room in Downing Street so can chase up the answers given.

The only benefit I see from the continuation of the press conferences is the part where the scientific and medical advisors explain the figures and are able to give developments as to the changes in understanding of the science behind the virus. In many ways it would make sense to continue with some form of conference headed by the likes of Chris Whitty or Jenny Harries to explain the developments on the scientific side and have a separate weekly update for the political and economic aspects.

 

[Jamesrob637]

There's a consensus here that daily is repetitive. How would people feel if it were to take place only every other day, or 3 times per week? Similarly I did a poll for the Thursday evening clap to be reduced from weekly to fortnightly, but that's fortnightly for a long time into the future, even when most of the world is back to normal.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There's a consensus here that daily is repetitive. How would people feel if it were to take place only every other day, or 3 times per week? Similarly I did a poll for the Thursday evening clap to be reduced from weekly to fortnightly, but that's fortnightly for a long time into the future, even when most of the world is back to normal.

I reckon a decent approach would be to do a good hour-long programme on the BBC twice a week, maybe three at a push, with a half hour press conference and some decent analysis in the rest.

 

[scotrail158713]

Sadly X amount of people have died.
We've missed the testing target again but will do 72 trillion by the end of the month.
Use of public transport is falling.
Question dodging.

Then rinse and repeat tomorrow.

That’s a pretty fair summary of them. I caught a bit of one the other day for the first time in a few weeks, and they really do seem like pointless exercises now. They were needed back in March/start of April and were effective then, but are unnecessary as a daily occurrence now.

 

[BJames]

Grant Shapps announcing a £2bn package for walking and cycling in the conference now. Perhaps helpful to get some people off public transport in hotspots like London, but when you've got more and more people going back to work, I doubt a lot of people will want to cycle from Ipswich to London every day, for example.

Edit: I must admit the amount of money being invested in does seem good, but it's clear they will want people to stay off the rail for as long as possible.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

As its currently configured its becoming pointless most days unless Hancock, Sunak or PM are leading then you are likely to get new information. The introduction of public questions looked like a good idea but this is now resulting in questions picked to allow the govt lead to be evasive or just parrot the same old story. Journalists are a mixed bag and some do ask good questions but they never get an adequate answer the majority of the time so you never really get to the bottom of the issue.

Going forward they should just release statistics daily and do a twice a week briefing with BJ, Hancock & Sunak with Vallance and Witty

 

[Mag_seven]

Tonight was the last straw for me - a minister I've never heard of (I thought Boris Johnson was going to do more of these again?), just one not two experts and the good news is that apparently they have started recording Coronation St and Eastenders again.

 

[Cowley]

Tonight was the last straw for me - a minister I've never heard of (I thought Boris Johnson was going to do more of these again?), just one not two experts and the good news is that apparently they have started recording Coronation St and Eastenders again.

Yes I must admit that I gave up a couple of weeks ago with the press conferences.
The only thing I listen to now is the Coronavirus podcast on BBC Sounds:

BBC News - Newscast

The BBC’s daily news podcast with episodes Monday to Sunday at 5pm.

www.bbc.co.uk

They seem to cover most of the important stuff at a level that’s understandable for a layman, although there’s been plenty of useful information on here too which has been good.

In fact I’d like to say thanks to our members that have been up on the science or have chipped in with other useful contributions. It’s very much appreciated.

 

[BJames]

Tonight was the last straw for me - a minister I've never heard of (I thought Boris Johnson was going to do more of these again?), just one not two experts and the good news is that apparently they have started recording Coronation St and Eastenders again.

I thought so too... Johnson's appearance at PMQs today was the first public appearance for a week.

And Dowden certainly isn't the highest ranking minister - we haven't heard from Rishi Sunak at the conferences for a while, or Priti Patel for a few weeks. Surely Hancock should consider stepping up tomorrow at least? They seem to be increasingly repetitive (even more than what they have been), like George Eustice being put up yesterday, something which kind of just showed me that they weren't too sure what else to say at the conference.