Heartbreaks
and
IT is the heartbreaking number we all hoped we would never reach – 100,000 UK coronavirus deaths.
This figure is equivalent to the populations of Barnsley, Bath or Preston. Boris Johnson claimed: “We did all we could to save lives”.
But the blunders, U-turns and bad decisions that gave us Europe’s highest death toll tell a different story:
NO CONTINGENCY PLAN
Within days of becoming PM, Mr Johnson scrapped a team of senior ministers planning for a pandemic six months before the outbreak. The Government failed to stockpile enough personal protective equipment for frontline health workers and ignored warnings to buy more.
FAILED TO PREPARE
Instead of readying our Covid defences in January and February, the PM celebrated Brexit, took holidays and sorted his matrimonial arrangements. By the end of January, the virus had spread from China to six countries and the World Health Organisation warned of a “public health emergency of international concern”. But Mr Johnson would miss five meetings of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee. In February, despite warnings of inadequate NHS supplies, the UK sent hundreds of thousands of items of PPE to China to fight the outbreak in Wuhan.
LOCKED DOWN TOO LATE
The Government dithered for nine crucial days in March over putting Britain into lockdown even though the virus was out of control with horrific scenes at Italian hospitals. Other countries were clamping down but the
PM did not take it seriously, letting major sporting and music events go ahead and boasting of shaking hands in hospitals.
Delaying a full national lockdown until March 23 cost 21,000 lives, says analysis by Imperial College.
FAILED TO PROTECT CARE HOMES
At least 20,000 of our oldest and most vulnerable people died as ministers failed to consider the virus’s impact on care homes. Staggeringly, until March 12, government advice said it was “very unlikely” people in care homes would be affected. As a result, hospitals started freeing up beds and 25,000 elderly patients were discharged to care homes at the height of the outbreak with no Covid test.
Just 15% of the PPE considered necessary for protection went to homes from central stocks.
TEST AND TRACE BLUNDERS
In March, Mr Johnson shut Britain’s fledgling successful test and trace system. He reinstated it in April but the promised “world beating” new system has repeatedly failed.
A mobile phone app did not work on iPhones and a spreadsheet error meant nearly 16,000 Covid cases went unreported. Ten months and £12billion later, test and trace is still not fit for purpose.
LOST PUBLIC TRUST
Mr Johnson’s failure to fire chief adviser Dominic Cummings for driving 260 miles to Durham in lockdown undermined his government’s authority in May.
FAILED TO SECURE OUR BORDERS
Many countries had strict controls on arrivals, not Britain. In mid-March, the UK stopped asking people from areas of high-infection rates to quarantine.
Only last week did we ban flights from some nations and require arrivals to show a negative test.
FAILED TO PREPARE... AGAIN
In June the PM did not believe there was “a risk of a second peak of infections that might overwhelm the NHS”
Workers were urged back to offices and the Chancellor encouraged mixing with his restaurant scheme.
LOCKED DOWN TOO LATE... AGAIN
The November national lockdown was too late and lifted too early, failing to reduce cases and hospitalisations.
Mr Johnson abandoned his planned tier relaxation on December 19, just days before Christmas. Despite a catastrophic second wave, on January 3 he insisted primary schools should reopen. Three million kids returned – but he shut the schools a day later.