“Judge Barrett. Is it illegal to intimidate voters at the polls?” @amyklobuchar
“I can’t apply the law to hypothetical facts. I can’t answer questions like that”
Wow! #AmyConeyBarret refuses to acknowledge the fact that voter intimidation is illegal #ACB
Earlier today, Judge Barrett - Trump’s selection to replace #RBG in the Supreme Court - refused to say #DonaldTrump doesn't have the Constitutional power to unilaterally delay the election.
“And so by malice, stealth & brutishness a pattern is set. Less & less transparency. Less & less scrutiny. Less & less accountability. Until they’re entirely unleashed to bundle aside the truth & speak only their truths."
(Emerson Warner) #AmyConeyBarrett
1 - The fact that the govt ignored SAGE's advice on #circuitbreaker lockdown doesn't come as a big surprise as SAGE has been increasingly sidelined since the setting up of the #JointBiosecurityCentre in July
The JBC is part of the "NHS" Test and Trace Service run by @didoharding
"I am not confident - & nor is anybody confident - that the Tier 3 proposals for the highest rates, if we did the absolute base case & nothing more, would be enough to get on top of it.” Whitty
Did the govt just announce a #COVID19 strategy that they are not confident will work?
Whitty goes on: “That’s why there is a lot of flexibility in the tier 3 level for local authorities, guided by the directors of public health, to actually go up that range so they can do significantly more than the base, b/c the base won’t be sufficient huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/local-lo…
After months of excluding
local & regional public health experts from outbreak management (centralising data & contracting testing to companies like Serco etc), No.10 now going to get local govts involved in deciding & enforcing restrictions @doctorshaib👇
2/. This document appears to give clear instructions to Tier 2 (national) contract tracers not to pass on single positive #COVID19 cases in schools, colleges & universities to Local Health Protection Teams.
I’m no expert, but surely this is not good outbreak management advice?
3/ This would presumably mean having to wait for a #COVID19 outbreak before the Local Health Protection Teams even knew there has been a positive test in the school or university
In Scotland, by contrast, there are daily updates in local areas citing individual cases in schools
1. “Why were we faffing around with Excel when the scientists were telling us not to?" @skynewsniall
“The system was designed in conjunction with our scientists... at PHE & the JBC they're all scientists who have been involved in this." @RishiSunak
2. “Scientists” didn’t decide on using Excel. It’s a reporting/admin tool
The scientists would have told IT what info the database needed to hold. The IT team should have designed a database fit for that purpose rather than using an old version of Excel.
3. Sunak is also allowed to claim: “We are now testing 250,000 people a day”
That’s the figure for tests “processed” NOT people tested
When @MattHancock claimed 226,000 people were being tested on 21/9, the actual figure turned out to be around 82,000.
2/. The launch of a new decade-long national health strategy should be big news at anytime, but coming amidst the #COVID19 pandemic & with the potential to shift genome research to the heart of No.10's programme for govt, it is of particular significance.
3/. Genome research has HUGE potential social & cost benefits, not just in medicine
In the right hands & with the appropriate checks & balances it is very important but, when it is being rolled out by this govt in conjunction with companies like #Palantir, scrutiny is needed.
"The UK offers companies system-wide collaborative working, a dynamic regulatory system, active life sciences & increasingly expanding access to rich longitudinal data from the NHS’s 65 million patients"