This charade over the UK testing numbers is so depressing. hsj.co.uk/quality-and-pe…
In one sense, it should not be that serious: it is so obviously a cheat and has been so quickly seen through, that little damage is done.
But in another, it's concerning. The public health strategy - keeping us locked up, not working, not contacting - relies to a large degree on consent. We don't have the means to physically enforce every aspect of it.
Consent might be harder to sustain if people start to doubt that the govt are telling the truth about the state of affairs and the costs and benefits of different strategies.
Witness the 5g mast attacks. Govt says 'virus is not caused by 5g'. Small groups don't believe them and successfully attack 5g masks which can't all be protected.
Next: 'govt says we are not ready to relax the lockdown'. Many don't believe them and start to resume normal life. Or the opposite. Govt says everything is fine because we can do 0000s of tests. People think they are lying and stay indoors and don't buy things. Recession.
Also concerning is the indication in the report that some of the activity was skewed by the arbitrary 100k number - Amazon delivery surge which was 'unsustainable'. Why unsustainable?
Are we to understand that despite the urgent need to get to test and trace so the economy can restart, that some of these efforts will take a breather because some made up target has been reached?
One can exaggerate the significance of this but it is worth recalling that this is what dictatorships do. Make up targets, chew up resources chasing them, and lie about whether the targets have been met.
Public opinion is important not just because of the need to avoid physically enforcing the current strategy. People have to be persuaded of the facts and the best course of action, so that they then reward you with support for following that course of action.
That is to say if you lose them, you will be trapped into following the wrong course of action to get their support. Because you are understandably swayed by the need to get reelected as much as the need to save lives.
Eg: if you exaggerate test and trace capacity, you will get pressured into switching from lockdown to test and trace too soon, because if you don't switch from the perspective of the false test and trace capacity you are moving incompetently late and killing the economy.
Appending this, as the obvious retort, if there is concern that the public don't trust the government and are scared of covid19, is: 'senior Tories should encourage ministers not to lie about the progress of anti-covid19 activities'.
