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THREAD: The news cycle has been moving incredibly fast over the past 2 months. This article (paywall) details how the complacency of the government led to several opportunities for intervention being missed. Here are some key points (cont.) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh
1/11 On Jan 24, following a COBRA meeting (not attended by the PM), Health Sec Matt Hancock claimed the risk to the UK public was “low”. The same day, a study was published in medical journal The Lancet comparing the virus to the Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people.
2/11 Boris Johnson went on to miss 5 COBRA meetings on the virus, attending his first on March 2. In this time, whilst parts of the country were hit by severe floods, he focused on Brexit, his cabinet reshuffle and a 12-day country retreat.
3/11 “Stockpiles of PPE had severely dwindled and [expired] after becoming a low priority in the years of austerity cuts. The training to prepare key workers for a pandemic had been put on hold for 2 years while...planning was diverted to deal with a possible no-deal Brexit”
4/11 The article flags that experts were warning of the risks of inaction as early as Jan 16, when @DeviSridhar stressed that “overresponding is better than delaying action.” Global health experts had been monitoring the possibility of a pandemic of this nature for years...
5/11 In the 2 weeks between this and the first confirmed UK cases, the govt ignored numerous early warnings, stressing that the UK has “a strong track record of managing new forms of infectious disease” and didn’t raise the threat level from ‘low’ to ‘moderate’ until Jan 30.
6/11 A Downing Street adviser quoted in the article said that although a possible pandemic had been listed as the No 1 threat to the nation for many years "in reality it had long since stopped being treated as such.”
7/11 Another source claimed the UK was once “the envy of the world” for its pandemic preparedness, until “pandemic planning became a casualty of the austerity years when there were more pressing needs”...like Brexit...
8/11 Although a 2016 pandemic exercise highlighted shortcomings - inc. a lack of PPE and ventilators (!!!) - recommendations were ignored as preparations for a no-deal Brexit “sucked all the blood out of pandemic planning” in the following years...
9/11 A particularly shocking quote: “[Advisors] would joke between themselves, ‘Haha let’s hope we don’t get a pandemic,’ because there wasn’t a single area of practice that was being nurtured in order for us to meet basic requirements for pandemic, never mind do it well”
10/11 Also damning: “If you were with senior NHS managers at all during the last two years, you were aware that their biggest fear, their sweatiest nightmare, was a pandemic because they weren’t prepared for it.”
11/11 This article is full of detailed evidence of government failings and these quotes only scratch the surface. You *KNOW* things are messed up when a Tory news outlet is holding the govt to account! We are working to ensure that none of this can be swept under the rug.
