Panorama...did anyone else watch open mouthed?

[Walkingtohealth]

ApOlogies if there is a thread on this already but I could not find one.

In January this year, Covid-19 was officially designated a High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID). The decision was made in consultation with a group of British experts.
A Health and Safety Executive evaluation of PPE published in 2019 had already recommended that all healthcare workers should wear a gown, FFP3 respirator mask and visor when dealing with HCIDs.

Panorama in addition to the reporting about the fact PPE had not been stockpiled when it had been advised also found that the virus was downgraded so it was no longer seen as HCID. This meant advice regarding PPE could also be altered and that less effective PPE could be advised.

I was just gobsmacked by this. ....if this is true then the Govt have blood on their hands.

I don’t care what anyone’s political affiliations are...this cannot be acceptable surely.

Open mouthed/head in hand.

I just hope this wakes up some people who think this government has done the best it can.

They are guilty of minimising and ignoring this and they need to be held accountable.
Our government should give a shit about it's people and they clearly don't.

Not only that but they did a cross Government department exercise in 2016 as to how well prepared they, and particularly the NHS would be in response to a pandemic. The answer was the NHS would struggle.

None of the recommendations were carried out.

I wanted to cry and scream at the same time. I can't understand why this hasn't been discussed to death on TV today. There were a few mentions of them counting the individual gloves on BBC Breakfast but really would have thought this was Minister hauling over coals time.

I’m incredulous that so many remained unaware.

Last night John Ashton was once again wheeled out by BBC Panorama to attack the government, with the editors failing to tell viewers of his longstanding left-wing, anti-Government views and long membership of the Labour Party. All of the show's other NHS interviewees were left wing activists.
hardly a ground-breaking hard hitting unbiased investigation which is what is really needed (not by the BBC or channel 4 though)

I think graphics are better to shock people.
I’m sickened by all the ‘poor Boris’ what a trooper shite.

More or Less analysed number of NHS/Carer death by proportion of the population, and found they are not significantly over represented in the figures, so may not be significantly at risk. Bus drivers however are significantly more at risk.

It's too soon to call, I think.

As far as excess deaths are concerned- I can't comment on the other nations, but as London was the first UK hot spot I'd expect their numbers to be worse. Scotland N. Ireland and Wales has a little longer to prepare.

Been saying this for months- keep being told not to scaremonger

All of the show's other NHS interviewees were left wing activists. So what, if they are lying then give us the evidence, if they are telling the truth who cares if they are left wing or not?

It's appalling but sadly won't make any difference. It'll get swept under the carpet like everything else does.

@picklemewalnuts
England’s are still rising everywhere else is declining, nobody has longer to prepare, Johnson hummed and hawed before taking action, Scotland shit schools and stooped events and he then did, would he have if it hadn’t been for public feelings?
The Tories don’t care, his own words were you will lose loved ones, he’s been negligent in his role.

• shut and stopped

On Twitter they say all the contributors were left wing activists. Now this May be true BUT IT DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACTS. I couldn’t give a shite about their politics.
It’s too easy to sit back and say “pfft...all left wing activists” when NHS staff have died.
We can and SHOULD be asking questions.

The right will never criticise the Tories. Its like Trump. What is wrong with people
Our media are crap too not holding the government to account
I watched last night and it was brought up on R4 this am with a government minister
Nothing was denied, it was a bland we are doing our best

I was a bit suspicious of why the Government downgraded Covid-19 from being considered HCID on the 19th March but then decided to go into lockdown 23rd March, 4 days later. Its not just about PPE though, its also because HCID are treated in specialist centres. This wasn't going to happen, because we were not prepared. The new hospitals are not being used, and even if they were they were not ready at the outset. Now we have Covid-19 being spread to wards where people have been admitted for other reasons, and these people are picking it up in hospital, whilst the new specialist hospitals remain empty. I read that they were thinking of opening the Nightingale hospitals to non-Covid-19 cases, but this seems a waste of time and resources, because all the equipment needed to run this are not in place in these hospitals.
It would have made far better sense to have looked at regional hospitals, divided them up and decided to turn over some of those hospitals to treating emergency Covid-19 and keeping Covid-19 cases out of the hospitals, at the outset. Most of the hospitals have had spare beds, many have reported being extremely quiet with many wards completely closed, and even at the "peak" not all ICU beds were full in every hospital. Now we have Covid-19 in every hospital, with all staff coming into contact with it and with all admissions now potentially at risk of catching it.

Sorry that wasn't clear
It would have made far better sense to have looked at regional hospitals, divided them up and decided to turn over some of those hospitals to treating emergency Covid-19 and keeping Covid-19 cases out of the other hospitals, at the outset

All of the show's other NHS interviewees were left wing activists.

Excuses such as this are all over Twitter.
Facts are facts. If it's true (which it certainly seems to be) then it shouldn't matter who exposes it .

Everyone who runs a care home or a home care agency must be a leftie.

Last time I checked some were run for profit.

On 14th March:

World Health Organisation questions UK approach to COVID-19 outbreak www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/coronavirus-who-government-uk-strategy-17924466

The UK has one of the worst records of European countries

And what is worse is that despite how terrible it has been the same of Tory free marketeers are trying to get the Cabinet to ease off the lockdown. It seems they are quite happy, even if it is only younger adults, to let them to told to go back to work even if it could risk their lives.

MiniTheMinx - I wrote something quite similar on a thread on feminism chat, and not forgetting that the NHS was sending patients back to care homes when they couldn't be sure they were infected rather than to the Nightingale hospitals.

What this is about is an extreme example of the rationing that is already taken place. Somewhere along the line a decision was taken to prioritise the Covid patients knowing it would absorb most of the NHS resources. So people with existing illnesses stopped getting treatment and some of them will die. This is despite that fact that it is know that in all pandemics more people die from usually treatable illnesses because they dont get treatment. And it has been acknowledged that in the early day the ambulance service was not taking people to hospital in time. this was part of the rationing.

And of course the NICE guidelines which basicaly said any one with some sort o impairment should not be considered a priority. (Mencap wrote about this.) As a result some GPs started sending out standard DNR forms to patients on their list that met the NICE guidelines for being "frail".

In effect supposedly rational decisions were put in place to filter out people not high up on the pecking order.

Tories in “couldn’t give a fuck about people” shock .

How is this a surprise to anyone?

And most people who work in the NHS probably have left wing leanings - that’s hardly a surprise either.

The people of this country truly got the government they deserved .

I've been saying for ages that our PPE looks crap compared to other countries. Italy and China are in full-on hazmat suits while we're wearing a plastic apron, gloves and a paper mask?!

We shouldn’t be shocked,all this from a government who said ‘more of your loved ones will die’. I’ve not heard other governments saying this, cold hearted.