After a good sleep (and an even better curry) and in the full knowledge I’m probably going to have to work today, have been thinking about the past couple of days. So, a thread
First thing: the anger here is real - it’s not confected. It comes down to the sense people have that they’re being treated with contempt. They are very, very, very angry.
Second: could understand why eg Hancock might have been frustrated by Mcr in recent weeks. While Liverpool etc have been fairly clear about what they’ve wanted, GM has struggled to get consensus - while still being vocally critical of govt.
GM’s meeting with govt is over and it doesn’t sound like they were told what govt wants to do to us; just various data/analysis that I think those on the call were mostly already aware of. One person present says they were ‘seriously underwhelmed’.
Continuation of conversations tomorrow, potentially.
This is a bizarre situation, it seems to me.
Worth bearing in mind that we have a ~devolved health system here. Local leaders are pretty well briefed on the public health situation. Ministers reading out data to them that they already know (or which they would interpret differently) isn’t necessarily going to go well.
More than half the new cases in Manchester are among students, many in halls. Huge frustration in the system here that this was foreseeable; a feeling that there wasn’t and still isn’t a national plan for student return and that lockdown might end up being the price.
Should add that Manchester, politically, remains fiercely opposed to an economic lockdown, largely for that reason (although I imagine that would have always been the case). Suspect we’ll see a swift move towards the north lobbying with one voice, as per recent letters to govt.
That’s not to say that universities themselves have escaped criticism either and the situation with MMU’s lockdown was frankly a PR disaster. But the problem is, the students are back now, paying 9k a year to sit in a flat watching lectures, many self isolating. It’s a mess.
Starting to understand this a bit better. Pillar one labs talk direct to PHE’s database. Pillar two don’t, hence the ridiculous spreadsheet workaround. But surely the bigger q is: why don’t pillar 2 labs talk to PHE’s database (still)? news.sky.com/story/coronavi…
And yes I am being a nerd about this, but it matters. That statement yesterday didn’t feel like it gave the full picture. DHSC are the data controllers here; they also commissioned the Lighthouse Labs. Blaming PHE solely provides ministerial distance
It also feels like a function of the same/similar issues that were seen with Pillar 2 data earlier in the pandemic, as I think @EdConwaySky is alluding to. Which explains partly why local officials are *just so mad* about this.
Worth reiterating from my thread yesterday that some of these contact tracing delays don’t sound insignificant. Have heard of one case in Oldham that took almost fortnight to reach local teams; yesterday’s data release apparently included Bolton cases dating back to Sept 19.
Both areas have very high infection rates, obviously.
At the same time there’s this: the mystery of ‘local by default’ contact tracing, announced by govt over the summer. Hasn’t happened. Councils are proactively setting up their own systems, but the national one doesn’t seem to have changed (computer glitch aside).