I need to get this down on paper, as it were. It's burning a hole in my mind.

It became clear that Italy was going to have a terrible time of coronavirus on 22nd February, when parts of Northern Italy were locked down. At this point in the UK, everything was still normal. /1

On 28th February, nearly a week later, we had our first domestic transmission of the virus in the UK. At this point we were all still at work, and behaving normally. Dome people had read the signs and were preparing, but not many. /2

By 28th February people had already started dying in Italy. It was clear that Europe wasn't somehow protected against this.

But on 1st March, with 36 cases and counting, knowing that Lombardy et al were in lockdown, we carried on as normal. /3

Two weeks after Northern Italy shut down, over 200 people were confirmed in the UK. The data trajectory was very similar to Italy, yet on 7th March we were all still going to work and life continued as normal. /4

5 days later, on the 12th March, the UK changed the risk rating from 'moderate' to 'high' and anyone with new symptoms were told to self-isolate.

On 12th March in Italy all shops apart from grocery stores were shut down as lockdown, nationwide on 9th March, tightened. /5

While Italy was in total lockdown, the Cheltenham Festival went ahead - that very same weekend.

15th March, Hancock told the country 70+ year olds would 'soon' have to self isolate.

On 15th March 368 people died in Italy. /6

If we had no means of knowing what was happening in Italy, this would be more understandable. But of course, we have a thing called 'modern communications' so wtf? /7

Schools had closed in Italy on 4th March. They closed in the UK on 20th March, 16 days later, even though it was clear what had happened in Italy.

On the 20th March, 627 people died in Italy. Yet we in the UK were still walking around at liberty. /8

UK didn't lockdown until 23rd March - 14 days after Italy. That is two weeks of seeing what was happening in Italy and doing *nothing* of note. This two week period - a fortnight's grace period - was a gift!

But we fucking wasted it. /9

We had the uncomfortable privilege to actually watch, in real time, a developed nation deal with the virus, yet for TWO WEEKS we sat on our hands. We ended up going into lockdown at respectively the same point in the crisis as Italy had, if not a little later. /10

We did NOT spend that two weeks testing, nor did we spend it in an earlier lockdown.

For weeks, people have said 'well, got to see how it pans out first'. Well it's panned out now. We have more daily deaths than Italy ever did. We're suffering even more than Italy did. /11

They are now plateauing, still roughly two weeks ahead of us. But our plateau phase looks like it'll be later and higher. Yet we had two weeks of advanced warning. More if you count what we should have learned from China and Iran. /12

There us no excuse. There is no excuse for this. Its a national scandal and a tragedy. Two weeks advanced notice and now this. I'm absolutely appalled. /13

And now what do we get? We get a government trying to revise what happened. Stooges in the press like @DPJHodges trying to make the government look good despite the obvious, plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face cock up. /14

They cannot be allowed to get away with this. People - lots of people - have died who could have never caught the virus in the first place if we'd actually learned from Italy. I'm done, I'm too angry to continue. /15