The world’s No1 sport brand, a conference of contagion... and a 70-day SNP ‘cover-up’
IT IS one of the world’s biggest sportswear brands, so a conference for Nike’s top executives was never going to be a lacklustre affair. After all, the event would not all be business – there would be plenty of downtime to get out and about in Scotland’s historic and vibrant capital city.
Delegates also had the chance to enjoy the sights and many cultural delights, including whisky, that Edinburgh has to offer.
There would even be time to shop for kilts to take back home.
It was a chilly February day but the excitement was palpable as a fleet of taxis dropped off the high-powered delegation at the exclusive Hilton Carlton Hotel, just off Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
However, as the team got settled into their rooms – which can cost up to £230 per night – they could never have imagined the impact that their brief visit to the city would have.
For, unknowingly, they had become the ‘ground zero’ of the coronovirus crisis in Scotland – the catalyst for the first outbreak of deadly Covid-19.
As they settled into day one of their schedule of seminars, they were unaware that one of their number was already passing on an infection which has now killed more than 300,000 people globally.
By the time the two-day conference was over, it is believed more than a third of its delegates had been infected.
Only days earlier, the Scottish
Government had declared coronavirus – a highly contagious pathogen thought to have originated in Wuhan, China – as a ‘notifiable disease’. It meant that, by law, officials were obliged to report any cases, in a bid to help slow its spread.
When the first one was confirmed on March 1, many people were comforted by assurances from the then Chief Medical Officer, Catherine Calderwood, that detailed contact-tracing would begin.
Despite that, and amid alarming images from Italy of overwhelmed hospitals and hundreds of coffins, the threat of mass deaths on the same horrifying scale still seemed like a distant prospect to most people in Scotland. Only now, more than two months later, has it emerged that Health Protection Scotland (HPS) was urgently contacted on March 2 by international colleagues who said they had a confirmed Covid-19 patient in their care.
That patient – possibly the person who first brought the deadly virus to Scotland – had just returned to their home country after visiting Edinburgh for the Nike conference.
On March 3, it was also confirmed – again behind the scenes – that two more people in Scotland, also linked to the Nike event, had contracted the virus.
The unsuspecting public were none the wiser and the UK Government’s approach remained relaxed, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson even telling reporters at a briefing on the same day that he had shaken hands with coronavirus patients in hospital.
Life was to continue normally, as much as it could, was the official message still being promoted in London.
Four hundred miles away in Edinburgh, however, Nicola Sturgeon and her health officials were facing a dilemma.
Should they tell the public about the outbreak of Covid-19, a virus then ravaging our European neighbours, or should they keep quiet?
They decided to remain silent about the conference outbreak, fearing that any release of information could be a breach of the infected patients’ confidentiality.
Meanwhile, Nike employees were returning to work after the conference, in shops, offices and factories across Scotland and the rest of the world.
The sports brand pays the biggest athletes to use its products and promote and advertise its technology and design.
Its ambassadors include tennis champion Serena Williams and Juventus footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
It is believed at least one delegate from the firm’s Glasgow store had attended the Edinburgh conference.
Yet, at their base at Buchanan Street, in the city centre, it was business as usual.
From the time the conference ended on February 27, to some point during the week commencing
March 9, Nike employees, still oblivious to the virus spreading through their ranks, continued to receive orders and deliveries at the rear of the building, moving boxes of goods through communal spaces that were shared by several other companies.
During that week, David Hamilton, who owns a digital marketing business in the same building, was told the offices were being closed for a deep-clean, but he was never told why. A short time later, some of his employees started to develop coronavirus symptoms. One of them became so ill they relied on advice from NHS Inform – Scotland’s national health information service – and was ‘close to hospitalisation’, he said.
Amid a pandemic, it might be assumed his staff had picked-up the virus during their weekly shopping trip, or perhaps at a gathering of friends before the lockdown commenced on March 23.
But last Monday evening, as Mr Hamilton watched a BBC documentary about Scotland’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, during which the Nike conference outbreak was revealed, he had a dawning realisation. His staff had shared a 6ft by 3ft lift with Nike employees for more than a week after the conference, touching buttons, opening doors, standing to chat.
One persistent thought raced through his mind – could they have been infected?
He thought it was likely. One thing he was sure of was that no attempt had been made by health authorities to contact trace him or any of his 50 staff. Meanwhile, as a kiltmaker in Edinburgh also sat down to watch the documentary, outrage began rising as the minutes ticked by and he felt the same feeling of betrayal in his chest.
He suddenly remembered a handful of Nike conference delegates arriving in his shop for fittings at the end of February.
Exuberant at the thought of having a traditional Scottish garment to take home to their friends and family, his staff found their ebullience enchanting.
However, it would appear there was a terrible price to pay. First, a female member of staff who had fitted the kilts became ill with Covid-19 symptoms, followed shortly by a handful of other staff members.
As Mr Hamilton’s team have never been contact traced he, like so many others in Scotland who might have come into contact with the Nike staff, will never be entirely sure exactly how they contracted the deadly coronavirus.
The Hilton Carlton Hotel, like the normally tourist-jammed Royal Mile just around the corner, is now eerily quiet.
But the repercussions of that fateful get-together within its walls at the end of February continue to reverberate around the country – and questions about how the outbreak was handled grow ever louder.