MORNING SERIAL
IF more proof was needed that the UK Government had fudged the numbers to get over the line it is in the testing figures for the subsequent weeks.
In the seventeen days after the target was reached, the total tests only passed the 100,000 mark six times. The effect of these skewed numbers was to further polarise debate.
On one side you had people who could quite reasonably argue ‘they hit the target’ who were then vilified.
On the other side you had people who could quite reasonably argue that there were clear shortcuts and problems with the methodology, who were also vilified.
It contributed further to the toxic dialogue around the issue.
You cannot ignore that it was impressive to increase testing capacity to over 70,000 in a month from such a low base and that the target did have a galvanising impact on increasing test capacity (though you can severely criticise that the base was so low in the first place).
More important than the arguments of whether the target was ‘technically’ hit is what this incident indicates about the mentality of the UK Government at the time.
It was not about hitting the 100,000 tests because it would save lives, it was about being seen to achieve.
The New York Times reported that in the 48 hours before the deadline some UK hospitals were told to rapidly expand tests to thousands of workers and patients even if there were no symptoms.
This was problematic for labs which had to burn through supplies of chemical reagents, with some reporting that two weeks later they had been unable to restock and so had to reduce the number of tests they conducted.
One junior doctor at St Mary’s Hospital in London said that after two days where they were told they needed to urgently ramp up testing they then heard nothing for two weeks after the target had been hit.
This suggests that these tests were done not because the patients needed them, but because Mr Hancock did.
Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013
CONTINUES TOMORROW