Notable that this 151 page report suggesting (correctly) our Covid response was one of the worst in history was lead by two ex Tory ministers
Having read part of the report, however, it seems to be pointing to a whitewash when it comes to the second wave on.
By then there was no excuse.
A terrible price had already been exacted.
We knew early and hard works far better than late and lax.
By 18 September 2020 we were not even at 42k deaths.
Still. We already knew that was over 20k more deaths than was Vallance had said would be a “good outcome”.
We knew that
Yet now we are at 120k MORE deaths.
Nearly triple the number on 18 March and that is with 9 months of vaccine rollout
What deep level of incompetence does there have to be
1/ for any Government to deliver such a damn calamity &
2/ For a Select Committee not to utterly damn the political negligence for this?
Sorry Nearly FOUR times as many deaths as we had in September.
We are currently over 163,500 Covid deaths and still rising.
Staggering incompetence.
Someone (h/t @Lloyd_dennis8 ) has done a word check of the Select Committee report. Johnson is not mentioned once in the body of the report….all 151 pages of it…and just 4 times in footnotes.
“The policy says: “Instant messaging is provided to all staff and should be used in preference to email for routine communications where there is no need to retain a record of the communication.”
“Instant messages history in individual and group chats must be switched off and should not be retained once a session is finished.”
“There needs to be really clear and immediate messaging from government around which test [people should] act on. My very clear advice would be that if you have a respiratory infection, stay at home because you’re going to pass it on.”
“But if you’ve got symptoms of a respiratory infection and a lateral flow test that’s positive, I would be working on the assumption that it’s Covid-19 regardless of the PCR result at the moment.”
The rotten decision making preceded the Covid pandemic…and countries like Singapore IMPLEMENTED OUR flu pandemic plan with far FAR greater success…imperfect but FAR better
Because they ACTED on it
And had resourced PH to do so..& gave it clout
But which of us thinks giving the likes of Jenny Harries MORE clout would have made a difference?
It wasn’t more clout she needed but a massive kick up the arse from a political leader who was going to put saving lives and health and well-being at the heart of the response
Yet here we are 18 mnths later, post 3 lockdowns of sorts, Alpha then Delta variants increasing the risks & worsening the odds, 45 mill+ fully vaccinated
163,500 Covid deaths (by date of death): deaths & hospitalisations still piling up.
And a Government even sloppier than at the beginning.
The second and third/ fourth waves are unequivocally on Johnson. His choice against scientific advice.
How very Johnson to absent himself from the country when the Select Committee report is published.
In China, in the early days of the pandemic it was established that about 21% of (mostly elderly) admissions had a history of diabetes but a further c20% were diagnosed on admission.
Was Coronavirus precipitating diabetes or were these people with it previously but undiagnosed?
“The precise mechanisms for new-onset diabetes in people with COVID-19 are not known, but it is likely that a number of complex interrelated processes are involved”
These include
📌previously undiagnosed diabetes,
📌stress hyperglycemia,
📌steroid-induced hyperglycemia, and
📌direct or indirect effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the b-cell.