This is going to be a long one, but its important so please bear with me:

Health Secretary (UK) Matt Hancock gave a press briefing on COVID-19 yesterday. It should be mandatory viewing in these times, but specifically for Pakistan, there are many lessons therein.

Right at the beginning of the briefing, the HS introduced the National Director for the NHS & Professor of Public Health & Epidemiology at Manchester. This is the first key lesson: the govt there consistently includes academics & experts in its policy-making. Unfortunately, in

Pakistan, academics & experts are not only completely ignored but every attempt has been made on our campuses to crush innovation, dissent & critical thought. We are poorer than other countries on this front because this was an intentional design of the State.

Then the HS moved on to identify the step-by-step approach the govt is taking, clearly highlighting that their priority right now is to slow spread of COVID-19 so fewer people require hospital treatment, at any one time, thus protecting the NHS from being overburdened.

In Pakistan, our leadership has been either unable or unwilling to do this still. What we have here, instead of a clear course of action and explanation of priorities, is a stream of misinformation being circulated from the very top, i.e. the PM who informed the public that only

the elderly & sick had to be concerned. This is not how you contain spread of a virus. You do not mislead people by giving them a false sense of security. You do not spend the bulk of your speeches explaining differences b/w "lockdown" & "curfew". You are meant to give direction.

The HS proceeded further to emphasize that the government is relying on scientific and medical advice. Again, what we have here is politicians telling us the virus will die in the summer; we cannot afford a lockdown; our economy will collapse. In fact, we ignored all scientific &

medical advice and instead chose to placate the clergy (the results of which we are seeing already).

The HS explained that the govt is doing everything it can to enhance the capacity of the NHS by: i) expanding the no. of beds; ii) key staff; and iii) life-saving equipment.

We are being told we are a poor country. Our leaders are not emphasizing the need to protect our medical staff. Our hospitals have still not been given adequate PPEs nor have any attempts been made to either produce or acquire life-saving equipment (at least, we havent been

informed if this is the case).

A new hospital has been constructed (in 9 days) by the govt in the UK, as disclosed by the HS, with 4000 beds. The military has been "working wonders" there to construct. Has our military been asked to do the same? Is it doing so? We dont know but

from what we have seen thus far, it is a safe assumption to say this is not being done.

The HS clearly highlighted the exact number of people who have been tested and the number of people who tested positive, explaining how the rate of infection has been doubling every three to

four days. He then went on to disclose: i) the number of people admitted into the hospital w/ COVID-19 symptoms; ii) the number of those who have contracted the virus & died. Here, he expressed his "deepest condolences" over the deaths. Something our leadership has yet to do.

In fact, our leadership has yet to condole for the deaths of frontline workers, i.e. medical staff. Such is our State's neglect of those at the frontlines. This neglect is nothing new. Just take a look at our health budget to understand our priorities.

These are just a few lessons for us to learn from (literally only from the first 5 minutes of his 17 minute briefing). There are many more lessons to learn.

The saddest thing for Pak will be not asking the questions that need to be asked & not demanding better from our State.

Our country may be "poor" but our leadership doesnt have to be so directionless & spineless. It must be clear with us on what is being done, what still needs to be done and what our plans are for the foreseeable future re dealing with COVID-19.

Here is the link for those who want to hear the full briefing: