Read on Twitter
This was me a year ago today, wearing an FFP2 3M mask on the tube. My Government can’t tell me they did all they could. They were slow, too slow off the mark. Having lived in Asia & Africa, even I knew that you have to take precautions early & hard when it comes to novel diseases
Documentary evidence for the Public Inquiry into Covid. When scientific neophytes such as myself could see the need for early precautions, @BorisJohnson & @MattHancock et al have absolutely no excuse for having left things so late that we are now locked in this awful death spiral
My comment on 30/1/20:
“I’m not scared. I’m just prudent. We’re due a massive global viral pandemic, we’re overdue in fact. They happen every 100 years or so and have for millennia. This may or may not be the start of one. I don’t know, and until we do know, i’d rather be safe.”
“I’m not scared. I’m just prudent. We’re due a massive global viral pandemic, we’re overdue in fact. They happen every 100 years or so and have for millennia. This may or may not be the start of one. I don’t know, and until we do know, i’d rather be safe.”
“My gut says we’ll have a bit of an outbreak here. I give it a month of needing to be particularly cautious. Maybe 2. Just the maths of it -in terms of transmission rates, incubation spans, numbers who left Wuhan - seem to make that highly probable to analytical part of my brain”
The above I was wrong about. Our Government didn’t do ANYTHING for another SEVEN WEEKS from the date I wrote that above. I spent the whole of February & most of March DESPERATE for them to take it seriously. FACT: If we had, we’d have got ahead of COVID-19, kept it under control.
Start documenting this stuff now. It’s all evidence. Both for the Inquiry and for History. This lying, irresponsible, incompetent Government WILL, without a doubt, try to entirely rewrite this history in its ruthless bid to evade responsibility for what its abject, dismal failure
...has led to, namely:
- more than 105,000 dead & rapidly counting (1000+ EVERY DAY FOR WEEKS)
- the collapse of our economy
- mass unemployment
- the devastation of the life chances of a generation of children
- a mental health crisis unparalleled in peacetime
- no way out
- more than 105,000 dead & rapidly counting (1000+ EVERY DAY FOR WEEKS)
- the collapse of our economy
- mass unemployment
- the devastation of the life chances of a generation of children
- a mental health crisis unparalleled in peacetime
- no way out
It seems Govt’s plan said: ‘do nothing, because there’s no point even trying as we’ve run our State’s capacity down so far that it’s not worth the effort. Just let a few hundred thousand people die & find someone else to blame.’
So far, it’s all going exactly according to plan.
So far, it’s all going exactly according to plan.
We MUST keep asking questions. We must NOT let the Govt evade & lie & hide as they have done, & continue to do in the hope that we’ll all forget. Keep pushing for answers. Demand accountability. Or this WILL, too soon, happen again, possibly even worse. https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4499
‘UK’s biological security strategy, published in 2018 to address threat of pandemics, was not properly implemented, according to a former govt chief scientific adviser...a lack of resources was to blame... there was a gap bw pandemic planning & action...’ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/29/uk-strategy-to-address-pandemic-threat-not-properly-implemented
Prof Sir Ian Boyd, who advised environment department for 7 years & was involved in writing the strategy, said “getting sufficient resource just to write a decent biosecurity strategy was tough. Getting resource to properly underpin implementation of what it said was impossible.”
‘Boyd added: “The middle of a crisis may not be the best time to suggest why we should learn lessons … But many people are more likely to listen now. Certainly, nothing should distract us from getting ahead of Covid-19. My concern is that we should come out of this much wiser.”’
Remember when people warned @George_Osborne that excessive Austerity would severely curtail British State’s ability to respond to unforeseen emergencies? Well, here we are, 105K down. This isn’t all on @BorisJohnson. This debacle was a decade in the making. 10yrs of Tory failure.
Yes, I’m furious: I bloody hate it when even my worst fears and most pessimistic predictions are far surpassed by the callous, myopic, incompetent failures of a Ruling Class that has forgotten how to Rule.
Even 2 months on from this time last year, Govt. was still playing silly political games rather than getting everyone who could help - esp. Mayors @SadiqKhan & @AndyBurnhamGM etc - round a table to try to tackle what by that stage was very evidently going to be a massive issue. https://twitter.com/rajeshthind/status/1234538394715402240
And the fact that it has taken 14 months (!) to do anything substantial about waves - & variants - of COVID being brought in, & sent out of, the UK - primarily from Heathrow Airport - is at the heart of the catastrophe we are living through. Such mistakes were obvious a year ago. https://twitter.com/rajeshthind/status/1234568368897896449
Guess which London Borough now has highest rate of Covid transmission?
Hounslow.
Guess which London Borough is closest to Heathrow & houses many people who work at the Airport, most from ethnic minorities?
Hounslow.
This is a slow-motion pile-up, down to negligent driving. https://twitter.com/rajeshthind/status/1234572976445587460
Hounslow.
Guess which London Borough is closest to Heathrow & houses many people who work at the Airport, most from ethnic minorities?
Hounslow.
This is a slow-motion pile-up, down to negligent driving. https://twitter.com/rajeshthind/status/1234572976445587460
Excellent thread here from @yaneerbaryam who speaks a lot of sense. https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1338129624816087041
Summarised:
