Since the 16th March, the UK government has held a daily press conference on coronavirus. These press conferences can be watched on BBC1 where they range from 1.5 hours to more than 2 hours in their Coronavirus Daily Update. 

These updates provide an important opportunity for the media to hold the government to account, which is important in any situation but more so now during this global pandemic. It also may provide comfort to the population as they hear first-hand what the government is doing in response to coronavirus and how they endeavour to combat it. This is especially important for the older generations, who are not only more at risk to coronavirus, but may not have access to newer forms of media platforms. This daily press conference may be the only way of them getting up to date information about the pandemic. 

However, is it really necessary to hold one each day? The same questions are asked daily with the same responses being given. It seems to be a waste of everyone’s time. It is rare that new information is released each day, apart from the increased death toll and infection rate. Would the experts’ time be better spent trying to tackle the pandemic rather than relaying the same information over and over again to the media and public? 

There is already constant news coverage over coronavirus on all media platforms, so there does not seem to be any need to continue having daily press conferences. We are now in our sixth week of daily press conferences, and with no sign of exiting lockdown, is it really feasible to continue?

Perhaps it would be better to have press conferences only when large changes or decisions are made

Perhaps it would be better to have press conferences only when large changes or decisions are made and to relay this to the media and public. 

Some such as Andrew Neil have gone further and said that he wants the ‘patronising pats on the back’ and ‘patronising pep talks’ to stop in the daily coronavirus press conferences. I myself must admit that since the early press conferences, I have not watched the whole press conference in its entirety and just looked at the BBC News website after its release to understand the main points. 

President Macron has only addressed France three times since lockdown began. This seems adequate for the French media and public. He has addressed France when significant change has happened, for example, to extend lockdown. This is potentially much more useful as the French public know to tune in as something important will be announced. This seems like a much better way to relay information. 

With the same information being released, there have been calls for the government to announce their exit strategy, but none have availed. However, I do believe that this is the right call as coronavirus is an unprecedented and unknown situation that is hard to predict. Once the government has said something about an exit strategy, it would be hard to convincingly change their minds if new information came to light. The public may find it difficult to accept the change, if for example they increased the lockdown period, after the government said it would be lifted. Scenes such as those in the US may transfer themselves here. Defying lockdowns, Americans have taken to the streets to protest. There have been as many as 2500 people per protest clearly ignoring social distancing. It does not help that President Trump signalled his support for the protests calling the lockdown in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia ‘too tough’. 

On the 13th April, President Trump held a coronavirus press conference which was truly shocking, even by his standards. Acosta, chief White House correspondent for CNN, called Trump’s coronavirus briefing as the ‘biggest meltdown I have ever seen from a President’. Rather than focusing on coronavirus and the increasing numbers of cases and deaths in the US, Trump attacked the media calling the journalists ‘fake’ and ‘disgraceful’. The media was holding him to account for taking very little action in February. He also played a video which has been described as propaganda and more like a campaign video than anything else. 

For me, Britain’s daily press conferences are not necessary. Whilst they may have initially given comfort, I believe that many people now either do not bother to watch them or would prefer the government to hold press conferences when they have new information to convey. This would also free up time for the very important health experts to carry out their work, as opposed to not only conveying the same information over and over but having to prepare for the press conferences as well.