Thread by @danielgoyal

Dear First Minister Sturgeon,
@nicolasturgeon

Your instincts are right. Covid-19 needs to be taken more seriously; the UK’s national strategy falls well short of adequate. You are right to challenge Johnson’s impotent pandemic response and seeming disregard for public safety.

We support you. By 'we' I mean those of us who can see past the spin and half-truths and the shameful misrepresentation of the evidence. Those of us who respect life and can see the devastation Covid-19 is doing to our society.

Your instincts are right: Covid is not a benign infectious disease. It is, by a long way, the most destructive infectious disease in the UK. It is TRIPLING the number of pneumonia deaths and injuring many more. It is killing more than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined.

Covid has a monthly UK death toll greater than that of the second world war. It has already killed more civilians than WW2 did. Your instinct is right: Johnson is not a good war time PM; not a good leader during a public crisis that relies on strengthening public services.

Omicron is a warning shot…it is neither likely to be the last variant of concern nor the last pandemic pathogen to challenge society. So let us learn to BEAT it. Let us commit to the mitigation needed to reclaim our lives.

Let us expand our capacity to look after those who are infected and limit the consumption of limited healthcare for the others who need it. By doing so we diminish the threat of the virus and increase our tolerance of what comes next.

So challenge the inane. We will support you. And I am sure the many honourable scientists and brave commentators who have been challenging the ‘group-think’ mentality of Johnson’s pandemic response will too:
@trishgreenhalgh
@dgurdasani1
@Kit_Yates_Maths
@devisridhar

@theAliceRoberts
@doctor_oxford
@campbellclaret
@AlisonGeorge10
@alisonleary1
@mikegalsworthy
@IndependentSage
@chrischirp
@elaine_patten
@NHSMillion
@EveryDoctorUK
@sbattrawden
@HelenRSalisbury...
#CareForCovid

@DrSelvarajah
@DrSimonHodes
@DrNeenaJha
@drphilhammond
@Dr2NisreenAlwan
@IanMaher7
@DRTomlinsonEP
@TheDA_UK
@Parody_RCGP
@DoctorMayJay
@GYamey
@ProfSarahCowley
@ShaunLintern
@ByDonkeys
@mrjamesob
@ScotNational