How (not) to run the country…

TheStickler generally prefers a more verbose form of communication, but sometimes it’s best to be brief:

• For “quite some time”: Politicians of all flavours underfund not only the NHS, but the entire health care sector in general – including provision for mental health. Responsibility is offloaded on to the community (local councils) or the private sector.

• 2016-17: Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, determines that adequate stocks and other preparations for a pandemic are not necessary.

• As the outbreak is reported from Wuhan astute nations immediately stockpile and PPE goes into global short supply. UK watches from the sidelines.

• UK apparently seriously considers “herd immunity”, despite there (still) being no clear evidence that having Covid-19 creates any immunity at all.

• UK converts exhibition halls etc. into mega Nightingale hospitals despite having no ventilators or CPAP equipment, and perhaps most importantly, no extra staff trained in their use. Existing staff are flat out in existing (and repurposed) ITU at long-established hospitals.

• UK companies and partnerships rush to develop new ventilators (Mercedes, Dyson etc.).

• UK academics at forefront of vaccine research, “already in clinical trial”. Few remind us that one trial takes a minimum of 12 weeks, and at the very least, several trials are likely before a possible  – repeat possible – vaccine is found.

• UK media are allowed to constantly undermine lockdown severity with false claims that it’s “only for three weeks”. This was never stated, yet the public is fed a message of just a short term lockdown unchecked.

• UK buys vast quantity of test kits from China that don’t work.

• UK buys PPE from Turkey that doesn’t work.

• Jeremy Hunt takes to the airwaves to criticise the government’s slow response.

• Many “not very ill” Covid positive and suspected elderly patients are returned from hospitals to care homes.

• Care homes lack segregation or adequate PPE – virus runs riot. Pensions crisis solved in a few weeks.

• UK goes it alone (our tech is better than Apple + Google joint initiative?) to create contact monitoring app that fails within first 24hrs of test deployment on Isle of Wight. UK announces it’s working on 2nd app in collaboration with Apple & Google.

• Daily Briefing stats seriously under-represent severity of situation, in particular with regard to total deaths. Professor Whitty does his best to highlight this with frequent references to the “excess mortality” numbers that ONS are yet to produce.

• Extrapolating from ONS numbers for May 1st, we see that deaths in UK almost certainly now exceed 50,000. Government sticks with 36,000.

• Lockdown is ignored by far larger sections of society than is reported. Police are ineffectual offering guidance (instead of rubber bullets?). Fines are low and hardly invoked. No deterrent at all. Police post lame messages asking for help on Twitter. Twittersphere is full of covidiots informing each other that there is no threat, everything is silly etc. etc. This is left unchallenged and allowed to continue, putting the entire nation’s health at even more serious risk.

• Most other major European countries enforce much tighter lockdown. Thus French death toll significantly lower and numbers in French ITU and deaths are at levels that warrant “déconfinement”, at least in the modest and carefully zoned (green/red etc.) way they implement it.

• UK figures remain appalling but “Stay Home” message is abandoned.

• European medics prepare for a more serious “2nd wave” in mid July/early August. Provisions are being made now. Sensible UK medics are in contact with colleagues worldwide and do likewise.

• Government issues confusing and contradictory “easing of lockdown” messages.

• Scotland and Wales refuse to sign up and stick with “Stay Home”. “We remain united.” Yeah, right.

Once a lert, always alert?  You couldn’t make this up.

NB: In the picture above (from the 1918/1919 global Influenza pandemic) the first wave occured during June/July 1918. The central peak is the second wave.

 

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