"One of the Uk's worst ever public health failures"

[Fambo Number Mive]

Thought it would be worth having a new thread for the report "Coronavirus: lessons
learned to date" from the Health and Social Care, and Science and Technology
Committees, which can be read here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7496/documents/78687/default/

Britain's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a "fatalistic" approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found.

"Groupthink", evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately "slow and gradualist" approach meant the UK fared "significantly worse" than other countries, according to the 151-page "Coronavirus: lessons learned to date" report led by two former Conservative ministers.

The 2016 exercise warned of the need to stockpile PPE four years before the Covid pandemic hit.
Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic

The crisis exposed "major deficiencies in the machinery of government", with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge.

Despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK "squandered" its lead and "converted it into one of permanent crisis". The consequences were profound, the report says. "For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback."...The MPs said the government's decision to halt mass testing in March 2020 – days after the World Health Organization called for "painstaking contact tracing and rigorous quarantine of close contacts" – was a "serious mistake".

When the test, trace and isolate system was rolled out it was "slow, uncertain and often chaotic", "ultimately failed in its stated objective to prevent future lockdowns", and "severely hampered the UK's response to the pandemic". The problem was compounded, the report adds, by the failure of public bodies to share data, including between national and local government.

Further criticism is levelled at poor protection in care homes, for black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and for people with learning disabilities...Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said the report was damning. Hannah Brady, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the report found the deaths of 150,000 people were "redeemed" by the success of the vaccine rollout.

"The report ... is laughable and more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings than it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost parents, partners or children to Covid-19. This is an attempt to ignore and gaslight bereaved families, who will see it as a slap in the face," she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/12/covid-response-one-of-uks-worst-ever-public-health-failures

Even the vaccine rollout, which the Tories tried to associate with themselves as closely as possible in their determination to take credit for probably the only success of the pandemic while blame everyone else for their many failures, has been overtaken by the vaccine rollout of other countries.

Johnson is hoping that this will all have been forgotten about by the time of the public enquiry next year. I'm sure the media will continue to give the Tories an easy ride over the pandemic (and everything else). No ministers will have to resign. No-one will be prosecuted. And the Tory grifters will be out in force on social media spinning for their neolibertarian death cult party.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Steve Barclay, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and former chief secretary to the Treasury, has refuted the accusation that there was "group-think" in the government's handling of the pandemic.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he says ministers always followed scientific advice and protected the NHS from huge pressures like those seen in Italy.

"One can't apply hindsight to the challenges that we faced," he adds.

Laughable.

[steveh]

I see in the week of the report coming out Johnson is on holiday at Zac Goldsmith's Marbella villa. Strange how these kind of absences always happens with him.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

One mention of sick pay in the whole thing! One!

I realise there's a lot to pummel the government for but sick pay really is the most egregious ongoing thing they're getting wrong and something they could change and make us all healthier long past Covid.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Daily Mail headline begins with "But UK played a key role in saving lives". Propaganda sheet for our UKIP in all but name government.

[JaDanketies]

cmon now it's hardly the Irish Famine or the Black Death

I realise there's a lot to pummel the government for but sick pay really is the most egregious ongoing thing they're getting wrong and something they could change and make us all healthier long past Covid.

Can you imagine if they changed SSP? Maybe give you 75% - 100% of your wages for five sick days a year or something? It would be transformative. I ain't ever worked anywhere that offered anything other than SSP, which seems like it's deliberately designed to spread the plague around low earners.

[lipsink]

Steve Barclay did all the breakfast shows this morning saying "lessons learned" about a hundred times.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Can you imagine if they changed SSP? Maybe give you 75% - 100% of your wages for five sick days a year or something? It would be transformative. I ain't ever worked anywhere that offered anything other than SSP, which seems like it's deliberately designed to spread the plague around low earners.

I was gonna post "oh I suppose the home working revolution has taken care of this for us a bit in that a lot of people can just call in and say they'll be working from home if they're a bit ill" but I remembered the rightwing press hate that too.

[Chedney Honks]

RWP suck my dick who cares

Fuck em

[Fambo Number Mive]

The government say they've learnt lessons but it's blatant they haven't. All they care about is pandering to the covid deniers and big commercial landlords. If they wanted to keep hospitals from filling up, they'd bring back masks on public transport, in schools and in shops, stop attacking people who want to work from home etc. But they don't. The only lesson they've learnt is how the average person in England would rather not wear a mask on the bus or keep a bus window open even if it would save lives. I think the rest of the UK is less selfish than England, the land where most people are I'm all right Jack selfish little turds.

They know that this winter is going to be bad and they don't care. They don't care how many people die as long as people are out spending money. And this government are getting such an easy ride from the media.

[jamiefairlie]

The most important lesson they've learned is that they can do anything they want with no consequences, including killing people.

[robhug]

the pandemic has taught us that you can kill tens of thousands of your own citizens and still be forgiven (as long as you'd driven a JCB through a polystyrene brick wall shortly before the pandemic)

[checkoutgirl]

Britain's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history

Britain and America both voted for a fat, privileged, sociopathic oaf with bad blond hair whose main qualification is being on panel shows and who got elected off the back of a 3 or 4 word catchphrase. It's just bad timing you voted for the joke leaders when the pandemic hit and would do the most damage. Cest la vie.

I'm confident the electorate has learnt nothing from any of this and is just waiting to vote for the next millionaire oaf, the only difference I can foresee is maybe they can get the next catchprase down to two words.

[jobotic]

"Kill again"

[Zetetic]

It's just bad timing you voted for the joke leaders when the pandemic hit and would do the most damage

This is missing a major point of the report.

It's not just about Boris, or his ministers, or the Tories or the Parliament in London. Every aspect of the Westminster government has absorbed the sickness at this point.

[JamesTC]

Was going to make a Captain Hindsight joke before I clicked but then I saw a Tory cunt has already said that.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Looks like Keith will be happy if  Boris says sorry and starts a public enquiry that will be another whitewash.

[mothman]

He should definitely call for a vote of no confidence.

[jamiefairlie]

He should definitely call for a vote of no confidence.

In himself.

[Milo]

This is missing a major point of the report.

It's not just about Boris, or his ministers, or the Tories or the Parliament in London. Every aspect of the Westminster government has absorbed the sickness at this point.

Yep, cowed MPs, terrified civil servants and a compliant media. It's like the first act of The Death of Stalin but without the laughs. Even the Opposition is basically the same, in that it doesn't exist. It's all gone wrong. What has become of us.

[mothman]

In himself.

No, in the government?

[Fambo Number Mive]

From the Mirror

Another Tory minister George Freeman said: "It's too early for any proper discussion about blame and fault. This was a biomedical Battle of Britain and I suspect mistakes were made."

Perhaps Freeman should pass this on to his Welsh and Scottish colleagues. Welsh and Scottish Conservatives have been very critical of the handling of the pandemic by the Welsh and Scottish governments, yet the rules seem to be different when the Tories are in power.

Meanwhile Johnson has been photographed painting trying to look like Winston Churchill.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Was going to make a Captain Hindsight joke before I clicked but then I saw a Tory cunt has already said that.

God I love that. The implication is that nobody could've predicted this worldwide pandemic WHAT WAS ALL THAT STUFF ABOUT SARS AND BIRD FLU AND SWINE FLU THEN?!

This is what pisses me off - I know for a fact that our local authority had a contingency plan for H1N1 because I work for them and I've seen it. What was all that about? Where was our preparation? Why were we caught on the hop? Were the previous preparations inadequate? Did the fact that the last few pandemic scares never amounted to anything lull governments into thinking this COVID-19 thing would go the same way? Like am I just dreaming or has there not been a drumbeat in the background of us being overdue for a global contagious disease for the last several years? Like, next to climate change a pandemic was the big existential threat. Or are months of shitty sleep addling my brain?

[Zetetic]

UK National Risk Register, 2008

(And every year afterwards, presumably.)

(Noting 'influenza', but still...)

WHAT WAS ALL THAT STUFF ABOUT SARS AND BIRD FLU AND SWINE FLU THEN?! [...] Were the previous preparations inadequate? [...] Did the fact that the last few pandemic scares never amounted to anything lull governments into thinking this COVID-19 thing would go the same way?

I think these are interesting questions. 2002-SARS and various "light" flu pandemics taught the lesson that viruses would either be easily contained or have fairly... tolerable impacts on health systems and direct mortality.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Asked about what mistakes the government has made during the pandemic, the health secretary says it is too early to know what lessons need to be learned.

He tells the Today programme: "I don't think I am in a position yet to go back and look at every decision that was made."

Asked if he was wrong as a backbench MP to argue for greater weight to be given to the economy in the government's Covid response, Javid says: "No, I don't, based on the information that I have had and also from what I know."

He adds: "I have been in this job for 100 days and was out of government when a lot of those crucial decisions were made. I was a humble backbencher."

No wonder they chose a health secretary from the backbenches. Someone who can say "I wasn't in cabinet for most of the pandemic".

[George Oscar Bluth II]

It'll be too early to learn the lessons or ascribe blame for: forever

[Zetetic]

The Immense scandal should put to death the myth that English civil servants - whether in DHSC, PHE, or NHS-branded orgs - have clean hands.

There is no way that did not know that Immensa was fucking up results (again) and they chose to sit on it for weeks.