SHOULD we listen to
wise men? Or wise people indeed? And who are the wise people anyway?
What is SAGE, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies? (well,
you can see the link below).
Much is being made
today (by me too) of the fact that a senior Government advisor and
another spad attended meeting(s) of SAGE. And, we are told, took an
active part in discussions. And, we are told, reported back to the PM
and Cabinet.
Now before we go on we
need to be clear what SAGE's role is. It is NOT to make policy. It is
to examine, with the benefit of scientific and technical knowledge,
the nature and implications of an emergency and report back to
Government at whatever levels seems appropriate but usually Cabinet.
Their deliberations are
confidential (for frankly obvious reasons) and the membership changes
to suit the mergency. They are not intended to be influenced by
politicians or political expediency but to deliver a scientific
assessment with recommended actions and anticipated outcomes. I know
this since SAGE had a role in some of he gas and oil industry
emergencies with which I had sme involvement.
SO what is wrong with
Dominic Cummings attending?
Well for a start he is
who he is – an avowed anarchist with an agenda to cause disruption.
But worse his very presence would have affected the process. After
all, he is known to have (for unfathomable reasons) the ear of the
PM. But if he took part as well how can we know how he influenced the
outcomes? And if he did what price the mantra “we follow the
science”?
And why did he report
back himself when that was the job of SAGE? What influence did his
political version have against the science?
It is scandalous no
matter what gloss the PM and his cronies put on it, that the very
basis for scientifics decision, may have been tainted at source by
one of the PM's advisors. That will not do. And if it has resulted in
deaths then Dominic Cummings must stand beside his leader and take
the fall in due course.
TALKING of deaths, I am
sure I am not alone in being appalled at the vast thousands of deaths
that have occurred in care homes and whatever the euphemism 'the
community' stands for.
That it was happening
in the way that it has did not occur to anyone whatever they may now
claim. For I am certain that everyone in this country believed as I,
my family and friends believed. That when someone became sufficiently
ill they called 111. And if they were bad enough they went into
hospital.
But now we know this is
not what happened. For reasons which I am sure will be inquired into
old people (not unlike me) who were in care homes (unlike me) were
left to die without the benefit of hospital, ITU or ventilators.
Now I have had
pneumonia three times. Once I was 'blued and two-ed' across the
Pembrokshire hills to Carmarthen Hospital with my organs failing as I
failed to oxygenate. On two other occasions I lay gasping for air in ITU.
I was not ventilated which would have been a mercy since it involves
a powerful sedation.
Instead I lay gasping
for air and in total terror that each breath might be my last. It was
not the way to go. Not at all.
Yet this is what our
failure to take these old people into hospital consigned them to. And
in the eye of their carers who were helpless and without the hand of
their loved ones to calm them.
THIS IS THE TRUE
SCANDAL of covid-19.
And when the time comes
for the reckoning I sincerely hope that Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock,
Dominic Raab and most of all DOMINIC CUMMINGS is there to take the
fall. Along with the heads of every bank or finance house which
caused austerity which caused austerity and robbed us of our emergency back up.
The fact is that WE did not save the NHS. The people who did that were the thousands who
lay dying in care homes and their carers who together paid a huge price to keep
our ITUs working.
More on SAGE here:
(TOMORROW I shall ask why we never used the Nightingale Hospitals properly so that the NHS could get back to saving the rest of our lives.)
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