Thread by @MartinRemains

‘The charges focus on four areas: that healthcare workers struggled to access personal protective equipment, that Britain was too slow to implement a lockdown, that it bungled testing, and that vulnerable care home residents were not properly protected.’ smh.com.au/world/europe/b…

‘Says Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine & an adviser to the World Health Organisation: "The countries that moved fast have curtailed the epidemic. The countries that delayed have not. It's as simple as that."’

‘Dr Richard Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet medical journal, is even more damning: "The handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK is the most serious science policy failure in a generation."’

‘By March 12 a full-scale outbreak had taken hold in Italy and the illness was spreading across Europe. More than 1000 Italians had already died and thousands more were gravely ill in packed hospitals in the country's hard-hit north.’

‘The deadly potential of an invisible killer was becoming more obvious by the hour.

That day, Johnson announced Britain would move from the "contain" phase of the emergency to the "delay" phase. This decision would prove a pivotal moment.’

‘The shift meant contact tracing would be abandoned, and testing would be restricted to those only in hospital with symptoms. The move was at odds with the WHO, which urged countries to "test, test, test", as well as Germany's much-lauded program of mass testing.’

Bad decision.

‘The Prime Minister warned at the March 12 press conference that the "worst public health crisis for a generation" was about to hit the country and that "many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time".’

He didn’t say that his govt would make it much worse.

‘What he did not announce was a lockdown. Or anything close to it. Tougher measures would come but not yet, Johnson said, citing the need to introduce measures when they would have the most impact.’

Lockdown early reduces the number of deaths. Lockdown late increases them. Mad.

‘Instead, Brits were encouraged to wash their hands and stay home for seven days if they had symptoms. Schools remained open, restaurants and bars traded as usual, and visitors were still allowed into care homes. Flights were arriving from mainland China...’

Almost nothing.

‘Heaving public events were still allowed. A Champions League match in Liverpool drew a crowd of 52,000, about 3000 of whom came from Madrid, where a partial lockdown was already in force. More than 250,000 tickets were sold for the Cheltenham horse racing festival.’

Why?

‘Both events are now being investigated by health officials who suspect they may have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease in the areas surrounding the venues.’

We should be investigating every single death in health care and care homes also.

‘By March 16, the government's advice abruptly strengthened. People were told to stay away from pubs, theatres and clubs, to avoid non-essential travel and to work from home if possible, although the orders were not yet mandatory.’

‘Johnson would not put Britain into lockdown until one week later on March 23. By that point, many other European countries with a much smaller death toll had already been locked down.’

Why the delay? Doubling time was every 3 days. Lockdown on the 13th meant far fewer cases.

‘"The British response so far is not a model to follow. It has one of the worst epidemics in Europe and the world. That may have happened anyway. There's no way to know for sure, but some aspects of the response have almost certainly contributed to the high mortality."’

‘"The earliest stages were handled negligently," Rann says. "A shambles of mixed messaging, poor organisation and a complacent attitude that what was happening in Italy wouldn't happen here."’

‘Hunter says border closures in Australia and New Zealand stood in stark contrast to Britain, which only briefly imposed restrictions on people flying in from Wuhan. Even today, the few passengers still arriving in Britain are under no obligation to self-isolate.’

‘"Good public health practice would be to, if not close the borders, then at least have some sort of mandatory self-isolation for people coming in during the very early stages of the pandemic," Hunter says.

"The reasons why the UK did not do it are unclear.’

Again, why?

‘Arrivals at Heathrow Airport were half what they normally were in March but still, 3.1 million landed there over the month. Nearly half a million came from the Asia-Pacific; 875,000 were from the European Union, and 711,000 came from North America.’

‘The decision on March 12 to abandon mass testing meant the government could only guess who was infected with the virus and how it was behaving.’

‘The extent of its spread would not become obvious until hospitals started to fill with seriously ill patients.’

‘Of the few tests that were available, the results were initially processed by a small number of government-run laboratories. Private sector labs and universities offered to help but now say they were given the cold shoulder before the government eventually embraced them’

‘Nobel prize-winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse told the BBC's Question Time program that testing was "absolutely critical and hasn't been handled properly".’

‘"We know that with this particular disease, you can be infected and have no symptoms. Now, this makes absolutely no sense. We were allowing, potentially, for front-line workers to be on the wards, potentially infecting people, because we weren't testing."’

‘Under pressure, Hancock announced a plan to lift the number of tests conducted each day to 100,000 by the end of April. He achieved it − sort of.’

‘The government reported 122,000 tests on April 30. The devil is always in the detail, though: about 40,000 were tests mailed to people but not yet returned to labs for results.’

‘The government is also hiring 18,000 "contact tracers" by the middle of May.’

Always this government have to be pushed to do the right thing. They are always late and reluctant.

‘Despite the recent surge, those early delays mean Britain has conducted just 10.13 tests per 1000 people, the lowest rate in western Europe. Italy's rate is 32.73, Ireland's is 31 and Germany's is 30.4.’

‘Only three weeks ago, even symptomatic care home residents and staff did not qualify for a test.’

Astonishing.

‘For many weeks, patients were discharged from hospitals and into care homes without being tested to check whether they would be taking a deadly virus to a place where it could unleash havoc.’

Thousands are now dying in care homes every week.

‘The Office for National Statistics, which compiles death data based on whether COVID-19 was mentioned on death certificates − believes 4343 care home residents died in England alone in the fortnight ending April 24.’

How can this be anything other than manslaughter?

‘In the week ending April 17, 7316 people died in care homes from all causes. This was 2389 more deaths than the week before and almost double the week before that.’

COVID-19 deaths exploded in the UK in care homes but were ignored by govt.

‘Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty says the only way to truly compare Britain's response will be once the pandemic has run its course not just in Britain but in other countries that may yet experience serious outbreaks.’

Well yes, but we have to monitor it now to limit deaths.

‘"We are nowhere near the end of this epidemic. There is a very long way to run for every country in the world on this and I think let's not go charging in to who's won and who's lost."’

No. The UK’s performance has been abysmal. Slow. Late. Stupid. Careless with lives.