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Government thinking is short-termism and what looks best. Optics of a big shutdown vs current relatively few cases are obviously bad. I'm pretty sure they will continue to take the least aggressive path, and try to avoid as much blame as possible.
I also imagine there are some thoughts that while it's bad, it does have the side effect of being a convenient scapegoat for post-Brexit economic performance.
villa-ru
@carson
what is the thinking of the uk government in relation to measures aiming to stop the spread & impact of the virus?
From what i can gather / infer the thinking seems to be that the spread of the virus is inevitable - that containment has / will fail - so the best result can be to spread out the virus' effect by implementing slowing measures (social distancing) gradually to relieve peak stress on the health services?
is the argument against massive, immediate concentrated efforts to lock down the virus a la Wuhan / northern Italy that it will unlikely work and that the impact of it would be so calamitous to society / the economy that it is the greater evil compared to the position whereby more limited measures are introduced gradually to simply slow the process of spread down?
If thats right the reality looks to be that the shit sandwich will be big, we will all have to take a bite, and that the process is going to be stretched out for a while so that we don't all puke at once.
I hope thats the rationale, as opposed to let's wait until it's really bad until we do anything because we can't face making brave decisions now.