Complacency at the heart of the process

The row that has erupted about Keir Starmer's attack on the PM over the care home situation has reduced to the level of a 'you did-I didn't' playground spat.
But however you view the quote that Starmer used, what it demonstrates utterly is that the Government was complacent at the time and has remained so since - and that they were not following the science.
It was first published on February 25 and remained in place until March 12.
By Feb 25 it was well known that Covid-19 was into France and appearing in Britain. Indeed current evidence suggest we may have at least one death in January. But leaving that aside. Everyone knows that care homes are rife with viral influenza during the flu season.
So how could anyone state that "it was very unlikely that anyone receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected (with coronavirus)".
But worse the incubation period for coronavirus was not established but it was quickly know that it was up to 14 days. So any advice given at that time needed to be updated daily.
The tragedy is that another two weeks passed without any attempt to ensure that major steps were taken at all levels and in all situations to build up reserves of testing kits, PPE, oxygen, oxygen delivery kit and ventilators.
It all smacks of a piece of guesswork by an adviser rather than anything scientifically based. Indeed one could be forgiven for fearing it has more to do with herd immunity theory. If so it must surely be time for a wholesale clear out of the special adviser dug out at Downing Street?

The who, what, when, and why of letting thousands die in care homes....

ROUGHLY a month ago I wrote about the spiralling deaths in care homes and wondered how it was happening. I even suggested it might be part of the Tory Government strategy to let the deaths rip in care homes rather than add them to the burden threatening to overwhelm the NHS.
Today in the House a new leader of the Labour party finally brought the PM to book on the subject. Oh the mad Tory supporters are busy claiming the advice back in March that care homes were not much at risk from coronavirus was taken out of context. Indeed Johnson lied once again by saying Starmer was wrong.
He was not. As clear as the indecent majority won by Johnson and co the care homes were told not to worry; they were not at significant risk. It was tosh at the time. It has been rubbish all along. And it is now visibly bollocks.
It will be some time before we know what the actual number of covid-19 deaths in care homes is. But it is already well above the numbers quoted by the forensically careful Keir Starmer.
I shall watch that row burn with interest. But today I would like to remind everyone of what all this represents, starting with the fact that people put into care homes are old, sickly, vulnerable and in many cases , alone. And that in the main the care they receive is not about life saving but about life caring and, if hospice does not intervene, providing a peaceful environment in which to slip this mortal coil. It's what they and their families pay for.

So the questions must be:

• WHY in God's name were those found to be ill with covid-19 NOT sent to hospital to receive intensive care and ventilation?
• WHO decided they should instead die an horrific and suffering death while spreading their dread disease among those brave enough to serve them?
• WHO indeed was it who decided that if they did get to hospital but were deemed not worthy of all this they were sent back whence they came, to die a horrific etc etc...
• WHO massaged the figures so that for weeks care home deaths were NOT reported at all?
• WHEN and by whom was that decision finally changed, only for the figures to continue being fudged?
• WHEN were GPs told or guided NOT to list coronavirus on the death certificate but only add it as contributing factor?
• WHEN will Johnson, Hancock and co finally admit the truth?

Out of confusion comes forth obvious guilt....

So my scepticism about the new coronavirus policy was justified. Confusion reigns. Clarity we do not have. And a spike in infection seems highly likely.
Let us start with who should be told first. After discussion and agreement in cabinet (did it happen?) it should be put to Parliament, where it will be further debated and the chance for clarifications can be met. This will be reported on. (This point will recur.) And the devolved nations should be consulted. Clearly they have not as they disagree vehemently with Johnson.
Then the PM or some chosen minister will tell the nation about it. If it warrants that. And they will make an address to the nation. Probably live. To be fair Churchill was often recorded but then his intake of brandy required it so we are told.

So why did Johnson choose to tell the nation first? It can only be for one of two reason or a combination of both.

• First he is not well enough to reliably deliver the message coherently in one take. To be honest he has not looked well since he came out of hospital.
• Second he wanted to ensure clarity and avoid the risk that reportage from a contentious House of Commons might be confusing.

Well the first is OK but frankly this tiny jiggering of the rules and wholesale loss of clarity could have seriously done with some testing in the House.
There is a third available explanation.  Johnson wanted to take credit for the first steps in lifting the lockdown; to be fully identified as the man who did it. Or, to put it another way, Johnson was still playing politics with the life and economy of the nation.

It is now clear that the Government accepts, albeit tacitly, that serious mistakes were made early on. Some even before the pandemic. Emergency stock of PPE was drastically low and under managed. Our capacity for testing, track and trace was similarly depleted, especially against our success in the past.
The NHS was under resourced and what little reserve capacity it had against major emergencies was hopelessly compromised.
But instead of responding rapidly to offset these failings they hesitated. Instead of following the science, as they claim, they delayed doing so. As a result, many things that might have been done as early as February were not done.

• Air travel continued unhindered and has done until now. 
• Major public events were not cancelled. 
• No steps were taken to guard against disaster in the care home. 
• A couple of headline grabbing hospital builds were begun. 

But as late as early March the science was saying lockdown now..They waited again to March 23. Thousands died.
And somewhere the care home situation was allowed to escalate out of control. One could be forgiven for taking the cynical view that I do. The elderly in care homes were NOT offered hospitalisation and thus no ventilators simply to save the NHS. That they could have gone to the Nightingale Hospitals (and still could have until last week) was not it seems considered.
Instead these old, frail people who had lived through the war we so recently lauded, were allowed to lie in their ordinary beds, tended by extraordinary people in less than adequate protective gear, to subside into gasping agony as the disease ate away at their lungs, their kidneys, their livers and finally their lives.
One day, good people of Britain, this man Johnson and his misbegotten gang of fools and rogues must be made to pay.

Cough... ahem... excuse me would you mind terribly if...

YOU might be forgiven, this Sunday, the 10th of May, 2020 (mark this date) to think the Tory Government had suddenly discovered clemency, charity, compassion.
Suddenly the harsh words and deeds have given way to softness and
kindness. But you would be wrong.
The slogans that are essential to any major campaign, be it to defeat
coronavirus or Corbynistas, are necessarily firm, aggressive,
positive. Stop. Save. Protect. Indoors. Lives. The NHS. Now we have stay alert,
control the virus, save lives. And uncertainty now
reigns supreme. I am alert. Where should I be, being alert? I cannot
control the virus, even the scientists cannot do that. Save Lives –
I can do that. How? It is complete bollox.
And if it were the work of a paid agency you would not pay them. Can
you honestly imagine this being the outcome of hiring Tim Bell, or
the Saatchis? Really? No. This is the
standard camel produced by the committee for race horse production.
Ungainly, unsettled and unappealing. Donkeys are not in it. They had a strong
message. STAY HOME. The rest was justification. If you do this you
can do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they
are hard *(as someone said 17 years ago). They did not stop 'telling
Sid' until the deed was done.
Now we must stay alert.
How? What for? Are we expecting an invasion of body snatchers? More
immigrants by the zillion? Is Simon Cowell launching a new wave of
talent scouts? It is on a par now with
the jokey Stay Calm and Carry On. In fact that is what it means, says
an obviously aware and desperate Robert Jenrick. Stay Alert is code
for Stay Home according to his interpretation. Does he honestly think
we are stupid? What it means is go out
and have a bloody good time but keep your wits about you. Walls have
ears you know.
So we lurch from too
little too late to absolutely not enough ever. Boris and co threw the
elderly in care homes under a bus to save the NHS which they had
reduced to a pale shadow of its former glory. They denied those
people ventilators to die in agony in their beds. They left the
carers to face a dreadful death... as well as at risk of their own by
a Government not having maintained or managed stock of EMERGENCY
equipment like PPE well enough. They failed to start a
lockdown soon enough, failed to cancel major events, failed to
maintain testing, failed to maintain track and trace (despite its
long proven efficacy) and finally they have failed even to properly
conform to the five tests they said were essential before any kind of
lockdown could begin. I would support a slow,
controlled return to work but with the STAY HOME message still in
place and reinforced. I would back even thoughts that schools might
re-open providing the majority of those at risk were still told STAY
HOME. We are week, even
months away from any sort of normality – but we may now be only
days from a new surge. With news horrors in
care homes and the possible isolation Nightingale hospitals unused
and mothballed. And with an exhausted medical front line. If this benighted
Government does not pay soon they may yet retain power due a marked
absence of anyone able to vote at all!