“There’s been a sharp rise in the number of people not eligible for a test coming forward for testing”

@MattHancock blames people without #COVID symptoms getting tested inappropriately for current testing fiasco

That’s right folks. It’s our fault again!

This pattern of blaming the public for not following govt guidelines has been used throughout

And it’s not just the public who are blamed by @BorisJohnson’s govt

NHS staff were blamed for the shortage of PPE because Hancock said they were using too much.

The most obscene attempt to shift blame has been @BorisJohnson on #CareHomeScandal. He claimed:

- “clinicians made the final decision” to discharge from hospitals

- care homes didn't "follow procedures"

- scientists didn’t know about asymptomatic spread https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1285281523621679105?s=21

This narrative that the public are to blame for the spread of #COVID19 has been amplified in the media with constant stories of “Covidiots” breaking the rules.

Here @BBCFergusWalsh blames the lack of #facemask wearing on the public rather than on 4 months of govt mix messaging.

“Go to work. Don't go on public transport. Why are you not in work? Eat out but don't visit your sister. Go on holiday. Quick come home. Blame the public rather than the contradictory policy.”

Issuing of contradictory messaging is not purely accidental.

If it’s hard to discern the strategy underpinning the govt’s #COVID19 response, that’s maybe because it’s meant to be.

But their ‘comms strategy’ - chaotic as it is - offers some important clues.

Could creating uncertainty have been part of the goal? https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1259927727819427841?s=21

But the most unforgivable example of public blaming came in the govt’s concept of ‘lockdown fatigue’

This spurious idea said that if we locked down too early, people would get bored

The media didn't question it

The delay cost tens of thousands of lives.
https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1290035140098273287?s=21 https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1290035140098273287

In the face of the horrific evidence from Italy & in defiance of WHO & their own behavioural scientist group (SPI-B), the govt refused to lockdown...right up until 24 March!

I’m still trying to find out who the concept of ‘behavioural fatigue’ came from. https://www.undercovid.org/articles/nudging