The Sunday Times investigation into the government's catastrophic handling of the coronavirus is one of the most important things you've read.
It's behind a paywall, so here's a thread with the key points. Make sure everyone sees it.
It's behind a paywall, so here's a thread with the key points. Make sure everyone sees it.
Boris Johnson was absent from the first Cobra meeting on coronavirus. Instead he was hanging out with a Chinese new year dragon.
Boris Johnson's government then continually played down the looming disaster, claimed Britain was prepared and missed four further Cobra meetings on coronavirus.
Boris Johnson didn't a Cobra meeting on coronavirus for five weeks - till last month - and then it was too late. The Prime Minister's reputation as lazy and complacent was proven. All the fears about him were vindicated.
A public inquiry into the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people because of disastrous government failings must not be a whitewash - that's up to us.
Conservative austerity left us without the PPE we needed for a pandemic.
Scientists pleaded with the government that mass casualties were coming, and they needed to obtain emergency supplies of protective gowns and masks.
Instead the government exported supplies to China.
Instead the government exported supplies to China.
On January 22nd, Professor Neil Ferguson warned that coronavirus could be more infectious than Spanish flu, which killed tens of millions.
Prof. Ferguson warned there needed to be a lockdown. The government dismissed this as something out of a post-apocalypse movie.
By late January, the seriousness of the virus was clear, as was the fact it was going to imminently arrive on British shores.
On paper, we carried on pretending that a pandemic was the no. 1 threat facing Britain. In practice, preparations for a pandemic had been destroyed by austerity.
We knew we didn't have enough PPE and intensive care ventilators because a pandemic rehearsal was conducted in 2016. But the recommendations weren't implemented.
Why? Because all resources were being wasted on preparing for a No Deal Brexit instead.
Why? Because all resources were being wasted on preparing for a No Deal Brexit instead.
Pandemic planning was repeatedly bumped off the diary, and the government advisory on pandemics were left desperately joking amongst themselves "Haha let’s hope we don’t get a pandemic".
OK, so austerity and complacency meant we were left dreadfully exposed to a pandemic. But even in February, when the "nightmare" scenario looked ever more likely, there was little urgency.
The government pursued herd immunity, thought this was essentially flu, so abandoned a testing and contact tracing strategy.
The government failed to obtain the testing equipment needed, even though we had the capacity to mass produce it. The government didn't approach most of those firms until 1st April.
The government failed to replenish supplies of gowns and stocks for NHS and care workers at the start of February. Many have died, and many will still almost certainly die as a consequence.
Again, government complacency has killed.
Absolutely astonishing. Singapore copied the UK pandemic plan. The difference is they implemented it and we didn't.
A deadly pandemic was about to ravage Britain and our Prime Minister was demob happy, telling everyone to be "confident and calm".
It was clear how horribly serious this was in late January / early February, and yet drastic action was not taken. The threat level was kept at "moderate".
Key experts called for a lockdown almost four weeks before it happened.
Instead of going to Cobra meetings, Boris Johnson went to a Tory fundraising ball. One donor coughed up £60,000 for a game of tennis with him.
The government's disastrous decisions have left over 15,000 officially dead in hospital (the real death toll is much higher) and at least 50 doctors, nurses and NHS workers dead.
Here's the key line from a senior department of health insider, and one that should be all this government is remembered for.
"We could have been Germany but instead we were doomed by our incompetence, our hubris and our austerity.”"
"We could have been Germany but instead we were doomed by our incompetence, our hubris and our austerity.”"
The whole article is here. Thousands and thousands have people have died, and will die, because of what this government has done. thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/c…
Meanwhile, here's some real truth to power being spoken on the BBC News main page.
