Quote Originally Posted by OngBonga View Post
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Claims like "the government's incompetence have caused thousands of deaths" have not been established as fact yet.
It can certainly be disputed, but I've yet to hear a good argument based on anything that corresponds with actual evidence that does dispute it. So far, the main arguments to counter critique of the gov't have been platitudes such as 'this is not the time to criticise'.

If we restrict ourselves to provable facts, then:

a) the response in the UK was slow relative to other countries in Europe. This is evident in the graph from the Imperial College report I posted earlier. For example, total lockdown in the UK took place 7 days after we passed 1 death/million. Only Italy was slower to act in response to rising fatalities.

b) the deaths/million rate is high relative to other countries, on track to be the highest in Europe, if not the world. Here, we're counting excess deaths rather than 'reported' deaths, since the latter are susceptible to gov't manipulation. This is evident in the FT report I cited above, and in official documents re: excess death rates in various countries.

c) the government strategy has been documented by both Reuters and the Times to have changed course from a 'herd immunity' approach to a 'lockdown' approach while the crisis unfolded.

d) there is plausible evidence (cf. Reuters/Times reports, reports from frontline health workers, the gov'ts own reports of how many tests are being given) that the gov't failed to prepare by securing enough tests, acquiring PPE, etc.

e) the gov't consistently claims to be 'guided by science' yet is unwilling to explain who those scientific experts are or what their specific advice was.

Those are all indisputable facts. I choose to draw the conclusion that gov't incompetence is the common denominator behind them. If you have a better explanation I'd be interested in hearing it.