Every day the evidence grows of government complacency, incompetence and lackadaisical approach to Coronavirus. On Question Time, Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, delivered a scathing critique of just how much time has been wasted. He described it as a 'national scandal'. We knew about it eleven weeks ago but have just woken up to the seriousness of our situation in the last few days. If ever we get a public inquiry in the future, let's hope those responsible - Cummings, Johnson and the cabinet of Brexiteers - are brought to book.
The coronavirus pandemic is starting to look like a black farce. At Wednesday's press conference, the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said:
"What we need to do is look at those countries that have actually got more testing than us and work out how to do it the way they’re doing it as best we can in our own system, using our own testing systems,"
It isn't as if these other countries like China, Italy and South Korea have been keeping it all secret. China published a paper in The Lancet in January for heaven's sake. What is going on? This is a fast moving situation and time is important yet the UK's response can only be characterised by delay and disorganisation.
The number of confirmed cases increased again, this time by 2,129 as did the daily mortality, which exceeded a hundred for the first time (115). We are still on the exponential growth part of the trajectory with no sign of reaching, let alone flattening the peak.
On the day we managed 7,854 tests the AFP News Agency report that Germany has boosted its own testing to 500,000 a week, or 70,000 a day about ten times our performance. We are supposed to lead the world in this sphere but are left trailing in the wake of Germany. I suppose ideology is stopping us asking Berlin how they did it.
The announcement of a contract awarded to Dyson for 10,000 ventilators that they have never made before typifies our approach. Dyson is a Brexiteer and no doubt this played a part in the decision. It is perhaps an attempt to display a can-do attitude: to show the world we mean business. But why buy an untried, untested design when existing manufacturers could scale up?
On Newsnight this week, Andrew Raynor of MEC Medical, an established medical parts manufacturer, said “nothing” happened when he contacted the government offering to make ventilators. He added, "The government should have given funding to existing ventilator manufacturers, and existing companies like us." Instead they went for a Dyson.
One supplier even offered 5,000 completed ventilators to the government but through prevarication, the opportunity was missed. A Nantwich company sourced approved machines which were apparently already manufactured and offered them to the Department of Health on March 17th along with 50 million Covid-19 self testing kits - but nobody got back to them and they were sold elsewhere - Germany perhaps, I don't know.
This week, a government spokesman, asked why the UK isn't participating in an EU wide scheme to bulk buy ventilators said it was because we aren't a member of the EU:
It seems we were so worried about being tainted by European help we were and are prepared to risk the lives of thousands of fellow citizens. This is where ideology takes you.No10 confirms that UK is not taking part in EU initiative to bulk buy ventilators and other equipment needed to tackle coronavirus. Asked why, Boris Johnson’s spokesman says: “We are not a member of the EU.”— Ben Kentish LBC (@BenKentish) March 26, 2020
The position barely lasted a few hours when we were told (via Robert Peston) that the reason for our non-participation was that "owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procuremnents in respons to the coronavirus pandemic".
The BBC reported it later as a 'mix up'. But it wasn't. Ursula Von der Leyen announced the scheme on March 15th and made clear the UK was eligible. This was reported in the media so all the stuff about a communication problem is rubbish. Another two weeks was wasted.
Meanwhile, footage of Health Secretary Matt Hancock on 19th March has emerged, where he confirmed the UK was "invited" and "is engaged" in the EU procurement process. It is clear the denials in recent days were pure ideology. If the government can't manage something as simple as signing up for an EU procurement scheme during a global emergency what hope is there for the more mundane things? We are now talking to the Europeans about joint procurement.
Placing a speculative order on a vacuum cleaner manufacturer may eventually look like a stroke of genius or it may make us a total laughing stock.
And I understand it isn't just the quantity of ventilators, it's the number of staff trained to use them.
It also turns out that the EU is offering the UK €2.963 billion in unused cohesion funds to help fight the pandemic. The EU released a press statement on March 13th where this funding is set out (scroll to the end of the page). Will we apply for it? Probably not.
Rishi Sunak announced extra help yesterday for the five million self employed people in this country whose income has dropped massively, in some cases to zero. Details are HERE However, payments won't start until the beginning of June at the earliest and it won't cover everybody who is self-employed. Strange how long things take even when you've got a global pandemic up your ass isn't it?
Now they know how business feels about a no deal Brexit.
Finally, to touch on Brexit again, I thought this blogpost from the University of Surrey was useful. The author, professor Simon Usherwood, plays devil's advocate and tries to argue the case for NOT extending the transition period. It's interesting so I won't spoil it by revealing what his conclusion is.
