Thread by @gameoldgirl

Far be it from me to defend Dominic Cummings, but please bear with me for some thoughts on that piece by @shippersunbound in @thesundaytimes.
(1/?)

This is the bit tweeted by @johnharris ...

but it is *not* presented as a direct quote of something Cummings said. It is some unnamed person's interpretation of what he thought the strategy should be...
(2/?)

It may seem callous, but "protect the economy, let old people die" is also the nub of what Matthew Parris (not a renowned fan of Johnson or Cummings) wrote in @thetimes yesterday.
(3/?)

Both Cummings's rumoured "herd immunity" strategy and the Parris piece above involved isolating the vulnerable. Neither suggested that old people should be encouraged to wander the streets, catch the virus and die.
(4/?)

Rather there is an acceptance that it is inevitable that some elderly people would succumb. As they do to flu.
Parris's point is that if you trash the economy, there will be many, many victims along the line. Many collateral deaths from things other than #covid19.
(5/?)

But back to @shippersunbound and my (uncharacteristic) semi-defence of Cummings.
The article also claims that once Sage reported on the likely outcome of the strategy, Cummings was the one most vigorously urging dynamic and urgent action. "A domoscene conversion"
(6/?)

It was, according to this account, Johnson who was holding back, reluctant to lock the country down.

I think the Govt has got an awful lot wrong. I think Cummings is a very rude word. But there is more to this piece than the one paragraph doing the rounds.

(7/?)

It really is worth reading the whole thing. It is insightful. It could also be seen as a BJ PR exercise (or him hanging DC out to dry). There's a lot about him being brilliant.
(8/?)

There are also delicious nuggets about Govey sniping at Hancock in an unseemly scramble for the big chair if/when BJ falls ill or goes off to play Daddy.

(9/?)

We are in a crisis. It is the job of those in power to balance needs and resources to protect the country, the people in it both now and in the future. That means life and death decisions. Doctors make these judgments every day.
Here, the numbers are truly scary.

(10/?)

I said at the time that I thought the herd immunity idea was bonkers (but what do i know?). I still do. But there is a real fear of what will happen if this virus comes back in a bigger second wave next winter - as the Spanish flu did.
(11/12)

Crowing that the national bogeyman would have let thousands and thousands die for some weirdo eugenic theory doesn't really help anyone.
(12/13)

Maybe instead ask why BJ (or DC) apparently didn't listen to the Chinese president when he phoned in person on Feb 18 to warn him what was coming?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Pity we didn't take advantage of Xi's.
Time for the garden #KeepYourDistance