Why this particular phase of the UK response so infuriating and frustrating? I think it’s because it increasingly feels like a pantomime of public health

The current guidelines aren’t real safety measures: they aren’t substantial or evidence based. But the job of managing the outbreak currently falls almost entirely on a confused public

We’re made to think that the important issues are things like pubs open vs pubs closed? Or ice rinks vs hair dressers? Or are blow-dries safe at the salon? What about waiting-room magazines?

What about the number of miles you can travel in Wales vs Scotland vs England to have a picnic with how many households? Why is it only safe to have an MOT after August 1? Pick-n-mix vs popcorn? Cinema vs theatres?

Why are airplanes are different to theatres? Is Stanley Johnson’s Greek housekeeping essential business travel?

It’s all close to being nonsense: there’s no good evidence for any of this stuff - even around pubs. It’s an incoherent mess because we didn’t bother to do a good job on the the stuff that’s important: contact tracing, testing, data collection, isolation

We’re still not doing any of this well so everyone in the UK is wondering how they can help and what they should do: are we irresponsible if we do or we don’t go shopping? To pub or not to pub?

If you’re spending any of this weekend debating pubs or anything else any of this remember that no epidemic in history was ever ended by the correct decision about ice rinks or magazines in hairdressers or guidelines about 1m vs 2m or “isolation bubbles”

There’s not a public health textbook in the world that mentions pub closure as a key strategy - but there are very clear guidelines on how to manage epidemics. And they are all about identifying cases and treating and isolating them whatever kind of disease you’re talking about

I’m not saying we won’t see a rise in cases once the pubs are open or that these things don’t affect transmission but they are fiddling in the margins in the absence of well conducted serious public health measures

You may or may not be inclined to give the government a free pass on a slow start. It was a complicated situation. But the fact that now we STILL have no app, no proper contact tracing system, the testing program is still aimless - that seems to me to be staggering

They had almost unlimited public support, they had the money printer and some of the best scientists in the world. But the government has been unambitious and complacent and their failures are likely to lead to a lot of deaths

I was thinking about all this when I was accused of being sanctimonious yesterday (a huge part of my personality - please don’t take it away from me) and trying to work out why I was so irritated about the pubs. I love pubs

It’s because the whole shape of the discussion is a distraction from the more important issues. I hope people having a drink today will remember the A&E staff are a bit tired (sanctimonious ) but also that they’ll be discussing why we’re in this mess in the first place

(Thanks @adamsonjon)

https://twitter.com/bbcnewsnight/status/1279198720756678658?s=21 (my biases for what they’re worth is that this is more important than Stanley johnson flying to Greece... and the seating arrangements seem similar to me ) https://twitter.com/bbcnewsnight/status/1279198720756678658