For those of us who’ve tried to constructively engage with government for months on #COVID19, that @MattHancock interview was deeply concerning, for these reasons:

First, he says in the first conversation he had with CMO he asked about the elderly.

Then why no action on the most obvious way to stop the disease entering homes: stopping care workers working in multiple homes & testing them?

Why no action at all on this? Nothing

I wrote to @BorisJohnson and @MattHancock weeks ago telling them this: “our system of social care, dependent as it is on agency staff, is responsible for spreading contagion”

I realise govt don’t leap to attention at a letter from little-old-me, but Jacob Reece-Mogg told me, @wesstreeting, @RhonddaBryant and others as we fought to keep parliament open, that MP’s letters during recess would be treated as a higher priority than normal. They aren’t.

Secondly, the health secretary just said that 15% of care homes had infections. How is this number obtained?

Yesterday I spoke with authority bosses in one area who didn’t know that number. Social care is not centrally controlled, so who collates this info?

Third, he said testing was stopped when five residents are positive. Care homes to date have been given five tests maximum regardless of result.

And he doesn’t seem to realise the only way to keep residents safe is to test staff. As @leicesterliz says, only about 500 have been

Finally, from call rounds my team did yesterday, many care homes still don’t have the PPE they need, promised last month, and some are even struggling to secure food supplies.

Government’s initial ‘containment’ strategy was stunningly effective. It bought our country 6-8 weeks of time.

When it comes to social care, testing, PPE and ventilators the question to be answered once this is over is: what exactly were they doing with that valuable time?