Perhaps for once BJ isn't lying. We're all going to get it. I believe that 80% of my classmates have had it already. Which as Sociologists we see match the predicted hit rate.
It this is true, then the virus has been in the UK for well over a month. They have all recovered and each of them showed 100% of the symptoms.
So, maybe BJ knows and hopes we can weather the storm, recovering quickly, and him proclaiming what was all the fuss about?
However, the government would gain greater respect if they had acted more directly to shut it down as many other countries have done.

Personally, I would have liked stricter control sooner. Things are settling down in China, Hong Kong, South Korea. I would have chosen to follow their tactics.

I am no expert, but I strongly suspect that none of the measures put in place by any government, will in the long term have any real effect on the disease whatever. If government measures slow the diseases spread, then the outbreak will simply last longer, and the same numbers, perhaps even slightly more, will be infected in the end. Since measures will break down and people will return to their hold habits after a while, be forced to, and a longer slower period of infection, with a slower spread will lead to a more complete infection in the end. The only real effect will be to lessen the pressure on the health services, and perhaps save a tiny few lives by getting the victims more organized care, though the greater numbers infected will perhaps cancel that out.

I also suspect that if they are getting good scientific advice, then the worlds governments know this, and that all the measures they are putting in place are simply gesture politics, which they are well aware will have no effect whatever, except to make governments look good.

The government is in charge of affairs. It is blamed , but they usually scapegoat the science. It is political expediency. The masses are left to rue their pains and misery

There doesn't seem to be much panic in NYC... Some wearing masks but the run on toilet paper is under control

People are freaking out wait see, check China on results

The amount of panic in the general public is disquieting. I think 24/7 news coverage and social media are largely responsible. I don’t think it was helpful that the BBC brought John Ashton on to the programme last night, he obviously believed that the current advisors are getting it all wrong, and was very forceful in his views, time alone will prove whether he’s right or wrong. I think we do all need to follow the same protocol, and Northern Ireland are following the English example. The Scottish government agreed on the protocol, but have decided to ban all large public gatherings such as football matches in order to keep medical staff at hospitals where they judge they’ll be needed most. It looks as if in England and Wales that will happen now too, because the Clubs have players who are infected, so that has sorted itself out without having a ban imposed. I thought the Chief Medical Officer and the Government Scientific Advisor made sense when I heard them yesterday, and the rationale for the measures that they are taking, sensible. The real problem is the public not complying with the advice and doing their own thing. Each country has to make its own decisions based on their particular set of circumstances, and on the best advice given by their medical and scientific experts, there is no correct or incorrect way to handle it. We just have to keep cool heads and pay attention to how we interact with other people and objects, making sure that we keep washing our hands and sterilising surfaces, and if we do succumb, and catch the virus, follow the isolation instructions which we have been given. This pandemic will roll through the population, we have now passed the stage of halting it, but if we are sensible we can mitigate the worst effects, and survive.