Thread by @ProfDFrancis

Hi Pranev, thank you for this article.

*However* before we give the government a kicking, let's think.

Think about 2018.

What were we interested in?

Brexit
Normal running of NHS
Jobs
blah blah

If the Government had announced that it was taxing us to spend our money on a Pandemic plan, we would have given it a thorough bollocking.

"What the hell are you doing? What pandemic?"

There was a lot to think about, and *you and I* were unwilling to pay unlimited amounts for a speculated threat.

Of course the people who worked on the report were angry that the findings were not implemented.

But I am angry that my scientific findings aren't implemented. That doesn't make everyone in the world stupid. It just means there are lots of findings, and limited time and resource

I'll do you a deal Pranev, if you can find any publication from 2018 where someone (other than the pandemic report team) said that:

We should reduce spending on X to increase spending on Pandemic Preparedness

or

We should tax more to spend on Pandemic Prep

... that would be a starting point.

It would still only be a STARTING point, as I bet there thousands of similar claims for things that AREN'T pandemic prep, from around that time.

Let's be scientific, and not a lynch mob.

Demonstrate to me that even ONE person, outside the pandemic prep team, identified that pandemic prep was more important than all the other competing pressures, and worthy of highlighting, and then we can start bashing the government.

I am keen to give the govt a kicking whenever I can, but this ain't it.

This is unscientific.

And unintelligent.

If you bash the government for not preparing for this, then I am gonna tell every one of your patients to sue you for everything bad that happens to them, ever.

Hit by a bus? Blame your Doctor. He knew it could happen and didn't do anything.

Stabbed in the heart by a terrorist? Blame your cardiologist. He knew how delicate the right ventricle is, yet didn't tell you to wear a stab vest whenever you go out in public.

What I would say is that, keen as I am to take the mick out of the establishment, I am astonished how quickly they have put together that Excel Centre thingy.

Let's be like those people, putting our effort into doing useful stuff, rather than moaning that people we hired didn't do what we didn't tell them to do.