Thread by @MartinRemains

@13sarahmurphy Swiftly. Firmly. Clearly.
I would explain what was necessary and why and from day 1.
I would have coordinated & cooperated with other countries.
I would not lie.
I would not blame others for govt error. There will be error.
Every household would have received masks in March.

@13sarahmurphy I would have reviewed pandemic plans as soon as the WHO declared a public health emergency. I would immediately have invested in local PPE capacity. I would be regretting underfunding the NHS for 10 years. I would have asked the NHS to plan for the emergency on Jan 30th.

@13sarahmurphy On Jan 31 I would have talked to PHE & Public Health teams planning to urgently increase test and trace resources.
I would have developed and put in place a plan around international border control & setting up internal ‘borders’ to quarantine areas of the UK to contain spread.

@13sarahmurphy I would have set up a command structure (gold, silver, bronze) for control of pandemic response when WHO declared an emergency. I would have devolved much control to local organisations.
I would have co-opted dozens of public health experts to this structure.

@13sarahmurphy I would set up a weekly (at least) COBR meeting to organise planning and response to the pandemic. I would have chaired them personally. Only ministers, aids and experts would be permitted to attend. I would publish meeting records (summary) to ensure transparency.

@13sarahmurphy Experts would be allowed access to detailed meeting minutes and all data available. Additional expert opinion would be welcome and sought in the hope to detect and correct error.
Metrics would be ready to monitor progress of the pandemic.

@13sarahmurphy PMQs would be dedicated to the pandemic response to inform Parliament and the public.
I wound have immediately asked the EU for an extension to the WA.
I would have injected enormous funding into research to combat the virus. Transparency wound be critical for public confidence.

@13sarahmurphy A parliamentary sub-committee would be set up to monitor and advise government as to pandemic response. Again, for public confidence and trust, transparency is key.
Transparency would have resulted in the public understanding of government action. Public trust is key.

@13sarahmurphy This thread could go on and on. The point I wish to make is almost none of this happened. We are governed by ideologues, who see transparency as their enemy, dissenting opinion as treachery and fact and truth as flexible day to day. They are wholly unfit to govern.

@13sarahmurphy There are many in the UK & out who would & could have helped develop a pandemic plan focused on border control, test/trace/isolate/support, non-pharmaceutical interventions & so on. The UK seemed to look in. I don’t know if that is true or not. We could have done much better.