Criticism of the UK response to the Coronavirus crisis

Criticism of the UK response to Coronavirus crisis...


Editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton:

The morning after the dramatic change in strategy to COVID-19 by this govt, I can’t help but feel angry that it has taken almost two months for politicians and even “experts” to understand the scale of the danger from SARS-CoV-2. Those dangers were clear from the very beginning.

Western “experts” failed to heed warnings.

Scientists have been sounding the alarm on coronavirus for months. Why did Britain fail to act?

“It is a national scandal, we shouldn’t be in this position” - on BBC Question Time

The handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the UK is the most serious science policy failure in a generation.

Why are political leaders afraid of the truth? This is the NHS today: “Colleagues have to attend disciplinary meetings for speaking out. Others have been spoken to and were ‘warned’ informally...I never thought I lived in a country where freedom of speech is discouraged.”

"It's the biggest science policy in a generation".

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Former director at the World Health Organisation, Anthony Costello:

Our government public health advice is simply wrong.

What is UK/ US context? Economy before people?

Five days ago, UK plan was to stop testing in community, allow 60% of the population to become infected, build herd immunity, + accept a 1% mortality rate (250,000). Now it's ramp up testing, suppress epidemic, limit to 20,000deaths. So why did we not do this in the first place?

COVID19 testing in South Korea has been at 20,000 per day for weeks. Why did we not scale up testing weeks ago? We are at 4000 per day now and government say it will take 4 weeks to reach 25,000.

Was it advisory team group-think, led by clinician scientists with no experience of large scale epidemic control? Was it British exceptionalism, dismissive of Chinese and Korean science and capability, and condescension towards WHO “bureaucrats”.

Overcentralisation v Self-organising. The UK always had testing capacity. Like Korea we developed a WHO approved test on January 10th.  But Korea immediately approached their pharmaceutical companies to help expand testing. We didn't.

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Director of Global Health, Devi Sridhar:

UK govt took a gamble on strategy based on flawed model & thinking it knew better. And it is shocking.

I still remain puzzled on why the UK govt is moving so slowly in its response

I don’t understand why mass testing and contact tracing with isolation is not being pursued in the UK?

Puzzling: from Jan until March 12th, even if gov't was indeed following 'herd immunity' plan of everyone gets it & keep economy/society going, why would they not order appropriate PPE to protect front-line health workers & responders, & prepare beds and get ventilators? Why wait?

Surprised to hear UK Deputy CMO say yesterday that WHO advice on testing is only for poor countries & UK has strong enough health service to treat our way through outbreak. Don't know any country which has this capacity, rich or poor & burden falls on health staff unnecessarily.

Even if govt was planning from Feb-mid March to let the virus run through the population until 60-80% would get it, why would they not prepare health services including adequate PPE for front-line staff?
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Former President of Faculty of Public Health, John Ashton:

The government science is wrong.. they haven't been doing the testing...we need to move to regional government..everything will seize up within a week.

Interview here.

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Hundreds of scientists warn UK government’s response to outbreak ‘risking lives’

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Founder, Scientists for EU, Mike Galsworthy:

UK govt messed up Covid-19 modeling... and are now backtracking hard.

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Economic anthropologist, Jason Hickel:

This evidence was available many weeks ago, and yet the government ignored it - even in the face of explicit WHO warnings. It is negligence on an extraordinary scale. Now healthcare workers in an NHS which has already been cut to the bone *by this very same party* will be made to mop up the mess our leaders have created, at significant risk to their own lives and families.

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Testimony of an A&E doctor in north of England:

It is absolute carnage in A&E. Utter chaos.

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Boris Johnson reportedly joked with business leaders that the effort to build more ventilators could be called ‘Operation Last Gasp’.

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The UK was basing its coronavirus control policy on a model based on hospitalisation rates for different disease.

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New Zealand scientists horrified at UK 'herd immunity' strategy.

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Government is resorting to Twitter in a plea for additional ventilators, and is paying private private hospitals for the use of their beds - meanwhile, in Spain they have requisitioned private hospitals.

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Analysis by Media Lens, critiquing the media's poor job at questioning the government's response to the crisis

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Football pundit, Gary Neville, doing a better job here, of critiquing Boris Johnson's actions, than most of the media!

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This government has abandoned healthcare workers to a disastrous fate.

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Compare response to crisis in Germany and UK.

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Johnson’s own personal views on the role of the state have been a major factor, according to those familiar with his thinking.

The government “bet” the future of the UK on advice from a very small group of scientists that for a long time differed from the wider international consensus.

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Urgent open letter to UK government, from experts in health research, public health, epidemiology,  calling for lockdown.

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Top statistician at Cambridge University: The UK is running out of time to avoid reaching a situation like Italy

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Damning video montage of Boris Johnson downplaying the virus.

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Financial Times journalist:

Other countries have been where UK, US and co are.

China instituted stringent lockdowns, many of which remain in place. Its case count has stopped rising.

Korea: enormous test, trace & quarantine strategy, which brought the spread under control.

UK? "keep calm and carry on"

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The lethal ‘herd immunity without vaccine’ strategy came from Dominic Cummings: “protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad”.

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“There is a huge staffing crisis” in the NHS with “no contingency plan.” There is no stand-down of elective procedure planning. Staff who have symptoms of COVID-19 are refused tests.

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Nafeez Ahmed on evidence that Boris Johnson’s government was more focused on saving money than lives when it came to issues such as school closures.

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“For two months the government had time to prepare, but Johnson’s instincts were to resist a life-changing crackdown. ‘There was a lot of talk about how this was just a bit of flu.’”

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Mortgage-holders will get support, whilst renters - many of whom will be self-employed with no income support - will not.

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'Confused, dangerous, flippant': rest of world pans PM's handling of coronavirus

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NHS staff:

“It's terrifying at the moment. Still no access to personal protective equipment [PPE] or testing.”

“There's been no guidelines, it's chaos.”

“I don't feel safe. I don't feel protected.”

“We are literally making it up as we go along.”

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Boris Johnson, at the beginning of March, completely ignoring warnings and advice from the World Health Organization:

"I'm shaking hands continuously. I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few Coronavirus patients, and I shook hands with everybody, you'll be pleased to know".

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Advice on protective gear for NHS staff was rejected owing to cost.

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Government ‘too slow to act’ and ministers have failed to lead by example, health experts say.

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Western failed response to the Coronavirus - is "a colossal market failure" - Noam Chomsky

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The EU has said the UK can take part in the procurement project [to access ventilators...], which will use the EU's buying power to purchase more stock. But... the UK would not be joining because "we are no longer members of the EU.

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UK should have gone into lockdown 10 days ago, Italy's scientific adviser warns.

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As a doctor I have to speak out: Johnson has contributed to thousands of deaths.

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Boris Johnson, March 3rd:

"I congratulate the Chinese authorities on the speed with which they posted the news of an outbreak that has had serious international implications".

Tories, one month later, having realized how much they've cocked up in their response to the virus, and not wanting to be blamed for lots of deaths:

"Blame China for everything!".

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Boris Johnson was briefed about Coronavirus in December 2019. His first Cobra meeting was on 2nd March 2020. No actions were taken for 3 months.

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The coronavirus letter you’ve just been sent by Johnson is a lie.

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NHS doctors ‘gagged’ over protective equipment shortages.

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Coronavirus Britain has a Very Sick Immune System. It's called the Media.

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We still have no explanation on why Germany has more tests.

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Look at the absolute astonishment of this newsreader when she realises Britain will only be getting 30 ventilators from the “thousands” promised by Michael Gove.

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None of the antibody tests ordered by Matt Hancock work.

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UK missed coronavirus contact tracing opportunity, experts say.

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Reuters report:

The government's move away from "herd immunity" was not based on changed modelling. They really had planned to allow 250,000 people to die, and were taken by surprise when the public weren't willing to accept that.

What changed was the behavioural science. The government had assumed we would prefer to let 250,000+ people die rather than spend a few weeks at home.

And there was no real effort to ramp up testing or increase number of ventilators. It looks like the government only sprung into action once they saw other countries were behaving differently and felt pressured to change.

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Doctor who pleaded for more hospital PPE dies of coronavirus.

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NHS staff forbidden from speaking out publicly about coronavirus.

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Leaked recordings of a Home Office conference call on Tuesday, exclusively obtained by Byline Times, reveal that the Government has all but given up in its fight against the Coronavirus and is intent on simply finding “a method of managing it within the population”.

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In 2016, a pandemic drill was carried out in Britain with shocking results. Devastated by cuts, the NHS was overwhelmed. The govt was warned, but did nothing and the Dept of Health suppressed the conclusions. What has happened in 2020 is a state crime.

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Boris Johnson 'skipped five Cobra meetings on coronavirus as warnings ignored'.

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In a speech earlier this year, Boris Johnson argues the UK could make a profit by avoiding lockdown.

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The Times:

Coronavirus: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster.

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Exercise Cygnus uncovered: the pandemic warnings buried by the government

Exercise Cygnus dramatically exposed the gaps in Britain’s pandemic response but its ‘terrifying’ findings have yet to be published.

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The Coronavirus Video Boris Johnson Doesn't Want You To See.

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“I don’t quite understand why we had four weeks of everybody shrugging their shoulders ..” -  one of the worlds must respected doctors - David Nott

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Boris can boast about his ‘successful' coronavirus war all he wants, but Britain’s horrendous death toll tells the real shameful story.

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Just 273 of the 18.1m people who arrived in UK in run-up to lockdown were quarantined.

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'Biggest failure in a generation': Where did Britain go wrong?

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UK government 'using pandemic to transfer NHS duties to private sector'.

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“A National Scandal”: a timeline.

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UK scientists condemn 'Stalinist' attempt to censor Covid-19 advice