OK - no response so I shall go firs.t
The claim Also they did have PPE stockpiled and it WAS used. But it was not the ideal PPE for the pandemic we had. It was PPE for a flu pandemic as that was deemed most likely to happen.
The reality There were no gowns, visors, swabs or body bags in the government's pandemic stockpile when Covid-19 reached the UK. Vital items were left out of the stockpile when it was set up in 2009 and that the government subsequently ignored a warning from its own advisers to buy missing equipment.
The expert committee that advises the government on pandemics, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), recommended the purchase of gowns in June 2019.
Gowns were one of the items in shortest supply in the UK in 2020 and became difficult to source because of the global shortage of PPE. That UK shortage could have been avoided.
Millions of FFP3 respirator masks are unaccounted for. There were 33 million on the original 2009 procurement list for the stockpile, but only 12 million have been handed out. The government refuses to explain where the other masks have gone. We sourced a supply for the two GP practices where our daughter and son in law work without any problem. Unfortunately, many NHS staff had to compromise their safety because the government favoured contracts didn't supply them in sufficient numbers after shortfall was identified.
It was not ideal PPE, so not suitable for Coronavirus It is certainly true that the government said the stockpile was designed for a flu pandemic and that Covid-19 is a different disease with a higher hospitalisation rate. Thta rather fails to address or explain the failings though. A higher hospitalisation rate and higher mortality would need more, not necessarily a different type. Body bags are sadly needed whatever the pathogen causing death. Cygnus estimated a 2.5% death rate and 750, 000 deaths. Coronavirus deaths are approaching 130,000 in the UK, so significantly less than predicted by Cygnus. You'd think therefore that appropriate planning from the exercise findings would have informed stock levels and that would have probably given us almost twice the amount of PPE required. Instead we had serious shortfalls.
As to the type of PPE needed, the DHSC are clear that the stocks held were inadequate rather than ' the wrong sort'. I refer you to the national Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Strategy for full details and a link to the guidance hub. The same equipment is needed and used across health and social care settings - although staff working in areas where there are aerosol generating procedures occurring may need additional levels of protection.
That bit about no pandemic for over a 100 years isn't accurate either.
Lets think about seasonal Flu. In 2017-2018 in USA alone about 95,000 people died. Swine Flu in 2009 saw nearly half a million deaths globally. Measles has seen global pandemics with the richer nations protected. Similarly it is likely that Covid19 will continue to mutate and it is possible that will have ongoing epidemic problems caused by a lack of sharing of vaccines. Silly behaviour to not share as rapidly as possible with the poorer nations.