Covid response one of UK’s worst ever public health failures according to a report by MPs.

[Zotter]

Sorry if this has been posted already, but couldn’t see a post about it.

A report by MPs headed by two former Conservative govt ministers came out today which says the covid response is one of UK’s worst ever public health failures.

Guardian write about it here www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/12/covid-response-one-of-uks-worst-ever-public-health-failures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A further Guardian article writes: ‘the failure to prevent tens of thousands of deaths during Britain’s brutal second wave of Covid infections was a more serious error than the timing of the first lockdown, senior scientists have told the Guardian, after a damning report by MPs on the handling of the pandemic. www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/12/the-real-problem-is-the-repetition-of-mistakes-scientists-react-to-covid-enquiry?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

BBC have written an analysis on the report here www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58890472

@Megistotherium

I don't think it was that bad, it could have been better, but early roll out of vaccination saved a lot of lives, and many people who are enjoying almost normal life now couldn't have enjoyed it if it wasn't for it.

No it wasn't that bad..... it was however absolutely appalling

For a country of the UK's resources to fall back on

"Well, it could have been worse.

Look at all these poorer countries without all our advantages whose numbers are worse than ours."

would be shaming, frankly, wouldn't it?

And it can never be "hindsight" when the U.K. government had months of advance notice,and then just watched it coming ever closer for months until the crisis was in full swing before taking any useful action.

@User135644

March was a catastrophe but the bigger one was winter. "Let the bodies pile high" and the farce over Christmas. Boris is a coward

Yes

Even if people are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt for the terrible negligence of doing nothing much about covid from December 31st 2019 to late March 2020, there's no possible excuse for the huge death toll in January and February 2021.

It's no use saying "lessons will be learned" then doing all the covid-minimising same things all over again and cueing up the next 50,000 preventable deaths.

@PatrickTheFox

I find a lot of the comments on here quite depressing and ill-informed.

Can we all remember that the UK comprises 4 devolved nations and health is a devolved matter. So very happy for people to have a go at the Prime Minister but why not Nicola Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford and Arlene Foster (she was in charge for much of the time in question)? We’ve all ended up in pretty much the same place on care home deaths, education etc.

Mark Drakeford has generally done a better job IMO. Arlene Foster a worse one. but most of life isn't devolved, so all nations of the U.K. can be somewhat hamstrung by the Westminster government.

Plus, as the tier system demonstrated this time last year, and the G7 in Cornwall showed us a few months ago, low numbers in one area of the U.K. can be quickly ruined by an influx of visitors from places where covid is less well controlled.

Short of banning visitors from England there's little the devolved nations can do to control their own covid case rate.

We’re still in empty sound bite territory and paying for the lines, incredibly since we’ve had this before from same person.

‘Group think’

Probably others. At some point we might get actual insight, hopefully.

there's no possible excuse for the huge death toll in January and February 2021.

Especially when the vaccine roll out picked up pace late December into January. Most of those 50,000 deaths could have been prevented and we ended up in a longer lockdown anyway.

@User135644

there's no possible excuse for the huge death toll in January and February 2021.

Especially when the vaccine roll out picked up pace late December into January. Most of those 50,000 deaths could have been prevented and we ended up in a longer lockdown anyway.

Yes this. And agree with PrincessNutNut's post about the devolved nations.

Yet despite all of this. The repeated lessons won't be learnt, the recent reports, still we have people making excuses, minimalising, othering, and denying - and doing British Exceptionalism very proud.

Even very easy and simple mitigation measures, we fail to do.

Germany has a population of approximately 83 million. They managed to ensure enough supply of medical grade masks for both healthcare staff and for the general public mask mandate.

I assume - after 18 months - we could do the same.

I can’t believe people lap this stuff up. Still.

Even when you know who is behind it.

Sells papers gets people talking.

@MarshaBradyo

I can’t believe people lap this stuff up. Still.

Even when you know who is behind it.

Sells papers gets people talking.

Sadly they do (lap it up). Despite the recent BBC report on the likes of Us4Them and other misinformation/minimalising/Denial groups.

Cummings isn’t much better.

He got us Brexit now his Covid narrative.

He's telling the truth.

his truth

As a non scientist

Funny who people listen to

It's so childish to dismiss what someone is saying, just because you don't like them. Even Tony Blair will be right about something sometimes.

What is untrue about he's saying re the UK failed negligent Covid response?

Ha at childish

What is lacking is not having process in place to stop one opinionated ex consultant driving a report

Non elected non scientist

And public paying for it

Yet it goes down well and people don’t have to engage their brains so I guess it’s worth the £

He's also right about Brexit. Whether we like it or not, it was a democratic vote given to the public by David Cameron. The result should be respected (for the sake of democracy).

And, also it was never black or white. There are negatives, yes, but absolutely also positives. It largely depends on who is in government and what policy they take.

We had a choice about what type of Brexit to have.

He was good at comms for Brexit rather than right. He’ll win most things

But he’s not the right person to determine the Covid response. No where near. A good sound bite person who gets people to listen, but subjective, annoyed at being dropped and not a scientist.

I welcome a better enquiry,

"Don't make friends with liars, they always know the truth". (The Relations: Who Do You Think You Thought You Were, 1988)

Old indie-pop songs are more perceptive than apologists for the government.

Oh, and don't bother calling me childish, I really don't give a fuck.

The attitude of dismissing anyone who supported Brexit - suggesting they're thick or liars or whatever other slur - rather than addressing their (legitimate) concerns, is exactly why we got the result we did.

Lessons never learnt, it seems.

Tea who is the thick part to?

If you look at my posts I am pretty vocal on dropping that. It’s one of my bug bears

Deja vu with Covid. Always deja vu.

Like pp have said, there was no excuse for the winter lockdown and deaths, and little excuse tbh for the first failures. Plenty of us did have the foresight (and basic understanding of infection control). They managed to cotton on back in the days of the plague. We really have gone backwards.

Of course there was a reason for winter lockdown - alpha

No one here is better than Whitty or Vallance on this. Even though they’d swear they are.

I’d take their views over Cummings

@MarshaBradyo

Tea who is the thick part to?

If you look at my posts I am pretty vocal on dropping that. It’s one of my bug bears

Sorry I should have been clearer. That wasn't aimed at you.

Ok fair enough