Thread by @DrEricDing

BLOODY HELL—UK 🇬🇧 is proposing to **cease publishing daily #COVID19 death toll** by April under @BorisJohnson’s plan to 'live with Covid'. This is how he and @sajidjavid plan to cover up their pandemic incompetence… scientists are very upset 🧵
msn.com/en-gb/news/wor…

2) “a senior Whitehall source familiar: “The PM has pencilled in Easter as the latest date by which the daily Covid statistics will be published in their current form. In an ideal situation he will bring an end to them sooner if the current downward trend in deaths continues.”

3) “If Covid infections continue to fall this month, Boris Johnson could order changes to the UKHSA’s coronavirus dashboard within weeks, and is understood to have set Easter in mid-April as the deadline to stop the publication of infections, hospital admissions and death data.”

4) “However, one leading Covid expert said the move to end the daily reporting could lead to a new variant of the virus going unnoticed, and NHS staff being blamed for not being able to cope with the subsequent rise in admissions.”

5) ““To be honest we’ve seen it coming for some time,” said David Strain.
“The move from PCR test to lateral flow testing was the first step to stopping the reporting, as the figures are now no longer logged centrally and it’s become a personal responsibility…”

6) ““The big worry is that if and when a new variant arrives then we’re not going to know about it. There is concent we will see the NHS being overwhelmed and staff being blamed for not being able to cope because the figures are no longer there to show the strain they are under.”

7) “Ending the daily Covid death toll is part of the Prime Minister’s strategy of living with Covid,” added the Whitehall source. “It is hoped that taking the focus away from the Covid figures will also help people move on with their lives.”

8) The source also suggested that the move would also please a “great number of backbench Tories” who have called for the daily update to end. Such a move may even help Mr Johnson gain support to stay in No10 as the lockdown parties continue to cast doubt on his leadership.

9) Any move by Mr Johnson to stop the publication of the daily update will only apply in England and would not prevent Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales from continuing with updating the figures every 24 hours.

10) Why else is @BorisJohnson so eager to stop publishing the numbers of daily #COVID19 dead? Well yesterday was the highest death toll date in almost a year!!!

https://twitter.com/JoePajak/status/1488909473397846027