Thread by @JenWilliamsMEN

I mean I don’t even know where to start with this, but if total crisis means they finally hand contact tracing over to town halls then I guess that’s progress

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1315040570298044421

The thing that immediately nags at me about it is that if govt is so immediately able to localise contact tracing as a result of political panic, *why couldn’t they do it months ago on the basis that it was the right thing to do*

Local authorities will be given control over mobile testing

Really. Intrigued to know what’s changed the evidence in the last few days
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…

Can we please not allow this to be a story about the government suddenly making a big innovation in contact tracing.

Ofc progress if contact tracing is localised. But it’s relative, against no progress. Anyone writing this story from a political perspective needs to know public health depts have been *pleading for this for months*. This is not a govt innovation

The obvious qs are

- what does localised contact tracing mean in reality
- when
- how much £
- how many ppl
- how much of that comes from the central contract
- when
- oh, and when

There’s no WAY you can get away with briefing that to a Sunday newspaper, it then getting on the front, and thinking some of us won’t shout the house down about it. DETAIL. Now.

Sorry, got furious. But this makes me incredibly cross and I know I’m not the only one. Ppl in local govt and public health have not been making this argument for fun. They don’t go ‘oh I know what would take up six months of my life, I’ll have a soul destroying battle w/ govt’