Government failures
“Some treats could be harmful for our pets.”
With news that the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be as efficient at combating the new CV variant and leading scientists warning that the
vaccines are not a magic bullet there can be no return to any “normality” until the virus is suppressed.
We must adopt a Zero Covid Strategy.
Hundreds of people are continuing to contract the virus, hospitalisations are still too high, and the tragic death toll of 100,000 deaths continues to climb.
This catastrophe is the product of government failures, including the delayed lockdowns, appallingly incompetent travel restrictions, as well as a totally inadequate £22bn test-and-trace system, labelled NHS, but run by private companies.
It is claimed that many parts of the private sector, with no experience, but with direct connections to the Tory Party, have benefited from billions of pounds worth of contracts.
This time last year, austerity cuts and NHS underfunding had left our health service with tens of thousands of vacancies and a severe shortage of hospital beds.
Patients were on trolleys in corridors waiting for a bed at Sunderland Royal Hospital, even before the pandemic struck.
Australia, China, New Zealand, Thailand, and Vietnam have suppressed the virus and people can now go about their daily lives, using a combination of strict lockdown measures, with proper financial support and effective systems of testing, tracing, and isolation.
Public Health Departments can do this and must be given this work, to get us to Zero Covid, efficiently without profits
for shareholders.
Pam Wortley, Sunderland.