Sunderland Echo

A matter of life and death

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The sheer incompeten­ce of a government that lectures Britain on the importance of self distancing and washing hands to prevent the spread of Coronaviru­s, and has had Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty all self isolating with the disease! Unfortunat­ely these self inflicted problems are dwarfed by those they have inflicted on the country. Front line NHS staff have been denied protective clothing and are dying. Medical staff have been threatened and told they must not complain to the media about these deficienci­es! Other medical staff are forced to self isolate to prevent making the situation even worse.

Yet the government ignores offers of help with protective clothing from

British companies! Testing for the virus is critical and has been stressed by the World Health Organisati­on (WHO).

Despite repeated promises and reassuranc­es for months, the government is still dragging its heels on testing.

Even the USA managed 400,000 in less than a week, we struggle to test 5,000 a day!

Countries which have coped successful­ly with the virus, Germany and South Korea for example, have used widespread testing. The government keeps making excuses, yet Germany and North Korea have managed.

It talks of using Wallgreen (Boots) and Amazon. Both American companies.

Where is the British manufactur­ed testing?

Currently doctors are going to vets and brewing up their own! The uncertaint­y over ventilator­s is verging on farcical.

First the government wanted numerous manufactur­ers to produce them, then said they had enough.

They rejected the opportunit­y to be part of an EU consortium procuring ventilator­s, and ignored the opportunit­y for 25 from a British company.

This is a total omnishambl­es.

Key government personnel cannot follow their own medical advice, deny vital health workers essential protective clothing and threaten anyone who complains to the media, repeated delays essential testing, and bungles the ordering for ventilator­s. The fiasco over “herd immunity” left the UK struggling to catch up, instead of giving us the time to react in a measured, well planned manner. These people must resign: we need an experience­d government of national unity, it is quite literally a matter of life and death. Standing at a lectern and telling us how many new cases and how many have died, is not leadership, the government is totally out of its depth.

Andrew Milroy.

“In this time of crisis we need organised, clear leadership.”

 ??  ?? “Where is the British manufactur­ed testing?”
“Where is the British manufactur­ed testing?”

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