1/ Great package on UK v Asian pandemic planning in today's paper, plus more on #ExerciseCygnus
Kicks off with scoop interview with Taiwan’s vice-President and epidemiologist Chen Chien-jen via @niccijsmith Very interesting on WHO and patient zero...⬇️
3/ UK plan raises white flag from off: "It will not be possible to stop the spread ... either in the country of origin or in the UK", it says.
Asian plans, by contrast, all go for virus containment in bid to save lives. As @DanielFalush says, the "framing" is entirely different.
4/ In Taiwan they have family stockpiles of PPE. "The family is the basic unit of the community and the core of the pandemic preparedness program"...
5/ Which brings us back to #ExerciseCygnus . Did that 2016 drill not set off alarm bells? "We discussed herd immunity" a Whitehall source said. "Everything we planned for was based on the idea that a disease would kill lots and lots of people". telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/1…
6/ Government has never published the findings on Cygnus. So we put in an FOI request for it This is what we got back...
7/ We will try to appeal. "There are serious questions for ministers on what lessons were learnt from the Cygnus pandemic drill that can only be answered by publishing", said shadow health sec @JonAshworth last night.
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🧵There are several unexplained facts and unanswered questions about the IDF drone strike which killed seven @WCKitchen workers in Gaza last week.
Here's quick thread summarising our investigation over the past week... 1/x telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
First, the most senior IDF commander dismissed for his role in the strike is a settler who signed an open letter in January calling for the territory to be deprived of aid, The Telegraph can reveal...
Michael Mansfield, KC, one of the UK's leading lawyers, says the letter is important because it "is plainly relevant to a particular state of mind”.
You may or may not remember this man, but on or around 16 Aug 2020 he vanished.
Or to put it correctly, he *was* vanished by operatives of the DHSC.
Imagine then my surprise when he appeared at the #CovidInquiry on Wednesday alive and well - and hungry for revenge ...
You may not recognise him on account of the comedy mustachio he's borrowed from Mr Spud, but his name is Selbie, Duncan Selbie.
He's the former CEO of Public Health England and is viewed by DHSC as one of the most dangerous men ever to have walked the corridors of Whitehall.
Such were the security concerns surrounding his evidence, he appeared via video link from a safe house in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, KC Kate Blackwell was scrambled for duty at the 11th hour and arrived in her whip with only moment to spare.
It's hard to exaggerate the power of Prof Chris Whitty's brain.
It's like the Brain of Morbius (Dr Who '76) but dedicated to good rather than evil.
So when he was wheeled into the #CovidInquiry today I was well excited, init...
And The Brain did not disappoint.
It spoke at 453 words a second, causing the Inquiry stenographer to combust, but was perfectly clear on slow-mo rewind.
There was no bluster, only a tincy bit of equivocation and plenty of new, very precise, thinking...
KC Kate, aka The Eviscerator, was limbering up for the more debonair (and possibly slippery) Patrick Vallance later in the day, so it fell to a chap called Keith something-or-other to tackle the brain.
It was a good choice as Keith has a big brain too, according to his website
Poor old George. He styles himself a man of vision but, as he was led from the dock at the #CovidInquiry yesterday, he left a behind a transcript that makes plain he abdicated his responsibilities in protecting Britain while Chancellor from 2010 to 2016. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/upl…
As he took the stand, the blood drained from his face and he seemed ready for a headline diverting scrap.
Attack was realistically going to be his only form of defence and, for an instant, I thought it was his warmer half, Dominic Raab, who was sitting there, coiled and prone
But George needed a chap to lock swords with. Someone who would enjoy a good old knock-about but knew where to draw the line. Instead he got KC Kate Blackwell, aka the eviscerator...
Before we get to not so gorgeous George Osborne, it's worth a brief reflection on Oliver Letwin's evidence of this morning.
It might be summed up as the *good chap* theory of disaster planning....
Now Oliver is a fine sort of fellow, astute and reflective, and it would be unfair to twat him about the head too hard, even when he's made a right Horlicks of things, as appears to be the case with getting the nation ready for Covid 19.
The KC was gentle and, after establishing Oliver's modus operandi - to be bloody nice to people and they'll be nice to you - he focused on two key issues ...