Charlie i pointed out to the bretheren about South Korea's test test test policy having worked and their cases were on a downward trend,it must have been miss-information is how it was greeted,but hey ho.
I think it was just pointed out that we are not Korea, and Korea's approach has been different to many other countries. Having done a little more research, the key points appear to be.
= S Korea has, in the last 10 years had both SARS and MERS viruses. They have got existing tried and tested procedures in place. We had neither. You could also count that the population having experienced something worse than Covid, as more compliant and knowledgable. We still have many people who can't get their heads around an instruction as simple as 'Stay at home'.
= They have testing but their testing is highly specific. They have laws and resources so that they can track you and publish all your movements, phone records, CCTV etc etc and can do so with anyone that you have come into contact with, even down to identifying who might have used the same toilet as you in a cafe. We have neither the laws nor the resources to be able to identify every individual you may have come into contact with. It is serious Big Brother stuff that would have been fought off if you'd suggested that we even have the capability to do it..
= They are geared up for 20,000 tests a day. To be of value you have to 1. have the tests, and 2. be able to process them.3. Test the right people. There is no point randomly testing everyone. We have never needed to do mass testing on this scale. We will have the capability but its taken time to get the tests available, and the test equipment isn't just waiting for someone to take the cover off and plug it all in. It has to be procured, built and installed. After this, we will have it, but when will we need it again..?
The thing is, there are lots of armchair epidemiologists right now, looking for differences in numbers and asking why this number is bigger than that one, and trying to draw all kinds of conclusions when the truth is that it is just too complex to get a simple answer for. Every nation appears to be doing something a little differently, but people of every nation LIVE differently. Why is the north of Italy doing so badly, is it that it has a high percentage of old people and grandparents tend to live with the family? Is it because they are more physically demonstrative, kisses and hugs than Koreans who only bow to each other..?
Even amongst death rates, there are lots of differences of doing the calculations. Some are only based on hospital admissions, some on community isolations, but what everyone seems to admit is that there are 10 times (could be 5, could be 50) times the number of infections, than are being used in the calculations anyway, as people get it and recover from it without it becoming a statistic. So one countries 4% may actually be better than anothers 2%.
My point therefore is that picking one number and going 'Ah! That's what we should be doing' is pretty pointless. We all want to be helpful (apart from the ones who want to just be intellectually superior...or 'Because Boris..'), but drawing a direct comparison with somewhere not actually directly comparable based on one number, is absolutely pointless. Worse still it undermines the UK response to this whole situation, and that may actually be one of the things that has stopped so many of our fellow citizens from taking this seriously.
I see we've even got Conor McGregor, the MMA fighter giving us advice now on what we should all do. I don't care if he can kick my head in. He should shut his mouth and leave it to the experts.