The problem with Covid 19

[Richard]

The problem with latest global pandemic 'covid-19' is that, although all nations, except for a few notable exceptions, agree that 'lockdown' can help slow down the spread of the virus, none has a plan of action that does anything other than applying 'local' political, cultural and social agendas to deal with the virus on the ground.
Added to that there is a global shortage of protective equipment, testing solutions and ventilators. The world's countries are competing on various levels to acquire these items.
Plus, some countries have been slow off the mark and are still playing 'catch-up'.

Public Health England (PHE) guidance has been fragmentary and of course Wales and Scotland have agendas that are individual responses.
Added to that neither viral testing methods (antigen/antibody) can be undertaken in sufficient numbers, even for key workers and although the tests may be 99% reliable, they cannot produce results of viral exposure/infection for perhaps 7 days, or more, after the event.

Individual countries inside each worldwide nation may have different priorities and means to procure them yet S. Korea has been widely praised for its rapid response to coronavirus, having tested more than 66,000 people within a week of the first community transmission within its borders. The U.S. took 3 weeks to complete that many tests and is expected to suffer greatly as a consequence. The White House is now trying to implement a 'whole of America response' to the issues.
Testing is crucial to slowing epidemics, first it lets public health officials identify sick people and their recent contacts and subsequently isolate them in quarantine.
The Trump administration began dismantling the team in charge of pandemic response two years ago, firing its leadership and disbanding the team in spring 2018. The team was never replaced, leaving his country to deprioritize the federal government’s and cripple its ability to respond to pandemics.
Trump, for his part, has defended his record, arguing, “I’m a businessperson, I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly.”
But experts argue that’s not how pandemic preparedness should work. “You build a fire department ahead of time,”

Another problem in the U.K., besides a lack of testing equipment, is that tests are only undertaken for people that have the symptoms of covid-19 and we don't know what is going on in the general population, trying to damp down the spread by social-distancing is currently our best response...