Thread on testing:
Government Ministers were hell bent on hitting the testing target by any means necessary. The scattergun approach wasn’t sensible and isn’t long lived - driven by a desire to prove others wrong, instead of doing the right thing.
1/5
Government Ministers were hell bent on hitting the testing target by any means necessary. The scattergun approach wasn’t sensible and isn’t long lived - driven by a desire to prove others wrong, instead of doing the right thing.
1/5
They were under pressure because the overall Govt response was slow from the start, so they panicked and set an arbitrary target with no real plan to credibly achieve it.
2/5
2/5
Tests were rightly opened up to key workers - but the website crashed. They emailed the Tory membership inviting them to take a test - instead of planning a way to sustainably grow numbers. They rushed home testing kits and thousands can’t be used because no return address.
3/5
3/5
And finally, when the going got tough, they decided to fudge the numbers.
The arbitrary target is not one that we called for, but Ministers have clearly been hugely distracted in trying to achieve it. Distracted because they were chasing a headline.
4/5
The arbitrary target is not one that we called for, but Ministers have clearly been hugely distracted in trying to achieve it. Distracted because they were chasing a headline.
4/5
I want the Government to succeed in fighting coronavirus, as do my colleagues on the NHS frontline. But I also want transparency, not propaganda. I want meaningful decision making, not publicity stunts.
5/5
5/5
