What an appalling interview from Sajid Javid starting a few minutes ago on @BBCr4today.
He is clearly incompetent, way out of his depth. I've seldom heard a minister say so many stupid things in a single interview.
@BBCr4today health inequalities are NOT caused by an unequal distribution of GPs.
@BBCr4today How, exactly, are you fighting the virus? Why are mask mandates not in place and rigorously enforced on public transport, in shops and other places, and in schools? Why is health and safety in schools and workplaces not ensuring good ventilation / air filtration?
@BBCr4today Are you not ashamed that, despite promises to increase GP numbers by your predecessors, GP full-time-equivalent numbers have, instead fallen? Despite "creative accounting" (counting heads rather than FTEs, counting trainees…?
@BBCr4today do you count the number of hours GPs work? What is the length of the working week for the average full-time GP?
Yet you call them "underperforming" and demand they work longer hours?
"When [SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 pandemic] arrived, we knew nothing about it."
Nonsense!
We knew a lot about Coronaviruses.
2/ We knew a lot about the immune system, how it interacts with pathogens, and how it can overreact to cause an acute (short term) overreaction (cytokine storms…); and about long-term autoimmune disease.
We knew a lot about treatments for autoimmune diseases.
3/ We knew a lot about vaccines and how they work. (Objections to sensible decisions - like extending the prime-boost interval - were based on the fallacy that "we know nothing…", and ignored decades of work on vaccination.)
1/ Regarding infections in schools, a colleague has pointed out that it is Department for Education directives that require schools to stay open, not PHE advice.
I am aware of this.
2/ Before I retired in January a complaint was made against me by the education sector for refusing to change my advice that a school or section of a school should close because of an outbreak of Covid-19 that was putting staff, other students, and their families at risk.
3/ The complaint went nowhere - I was giving the right public health advice, no matter how awkward it was.