‘We didn’t know where, we didn’t know when’
A FORMER government advisor on health has described the decision to keep the location of a Kirklees coronavirus outbreak secret from the public as “reckless”.
Emeritus Professor in Health Policy at Huddersfield University, Peter Bradshaw, has strongly criticised the decision of officials to keep quiet about a local outbreak at Kober Ltd meat factory, in Cleckheaton.
News of a Kirklees outbreak was revealed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Thursday, prompting
Kirklees Council to issue a statement. Kirklees’ director of public health, Rachel Spencer-Henshall, claimed they had acted quickly to limit further spread.
But she declined to give the public any details about where it was.
Nevertheless, news that it was at a factory that supplies bacon for Asda quickly leaked out.
There are some claims that public health officials have known about issues at Kober Ltd since April. The number of positive tests has not been confirmed, but the council said the outbreak had been contained.
Prof Bradshaw, who advised Conservative and Labour governments in the 1980s and ’90s, said: “It’s reckless to not have as many people aware as possible.
“You’re exposing people to unnecessary risk. Transparency is all and to minimise or disguise incidences of this lethal disease is both dishonest and shows reckless disregard for people’s lives.
“This should have been made transparent and the details put out to the public domain to alert everyone.”
On Thursday, the council continued to insist disclosing the location would not be helpful.
Prof Bradshaw said there was a supreme irony that issues of “track and trace” had unfolded on the very day Dame Vera Lynn had died.
He said: “We’re listening to Dame Vera Lynn singing ‘Don’t know where, don’t know when’ on the very day Mr Hancock admits his (track and trace) app doesn’t know where or when.”
Prof Bradshaw has backed a call by victims of coronavirus for an inquiry into how the Government handled the pandemic.
Writing on his personal blog, he said: “The Prime Minister describes the pandemic as analogous to war and, if this definition rings true, we are certainly, by all international standards, on the losing side.
“We are being outshone by almost all our comparators and especially regarding the most critical indicator of success or failure – the total death rate.
“The UK fatality figure – officially 41,500 but when adjusted for excess deaths is nearer 60,000 – sees us perform far less favourably than Italy, France and Spain, and we are currently surpassed only by the US and Brazil. The Prime Minister dislikes international comparison, but who wouldn’t, given we are high up the leaderboard.
“It is thus no surprise against this stark mortality figure that those seeking an inquiry want a detailed investigation of those contributory factors to this level of carnage.
“It is an uncanny coincidence, they say, that at almost every juncture of policy-making our leaders have managed to put the cart before the horse.
“From the first knowledge of Covid-19, we began sleepwalking into trouble and by the end of January when airline passengers from epicentres of the infection were arriving at ports and airports unmonitored, while the Government was busy planning fireworks parties and minting new 50p pieces in celebration of Brexit.”