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Isn’t hindsight great?
With an extraordinary performance, Dominic Cummings took out his colored pencils on Wednesday and It completely rewrote the history of the pandemic.
Taking on the role of “repentance of judgment” -making it possible to confess one’s sins and blame others-Cummings drew the following picture. The unfortunate incompetence of the government, IHis own ingenuity and advice were often ignored. However, there are some obvious problems with his evidence.
January Bruce
One of the most contradictory parts of Cummings’ exposure was addressed when the government first became concerned about the coronavirus.
A few years before the pandemic, Cummings frequently wrote about the potential danger of viruses wiping out words. After hearing about Wuhan, he told the MP:
However, he claims he hadn’t told anyone in detail about the matter until January 25. “I told my room number 10 to consider a pandemic plan,” he said specially. I told the committee.
Given what was happening around him, it was a strange delay. By January 22, the Ministry of Health had already announced that a team from the Port Health Department would respond to direct flights from Wuhan, China to the United Kingdom, to check for viral symptoms.
On January 23, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College said the virus may already be present, and the next day, the first five people who showed “coronavirus-like symptoms” were hospitals in Scotland. Was hospitalized.
By January 25, health officials Worked with border forces to track 2,000 airline passengers I flew from Wuhan to England for two weeks to see if they were suffering from symptoms.
From January 1st to January 25th, Telegraph has written 33 articles on emerging viruses. Most other newspapers had similar numbers.
“We should have closed the borders, strengthened inspections, strengthened masks, and all of this in January,” Cummings told parliamentarians.
However, he himself had not begun to consider this issue until the end of January, so it is a mystery how he could achieve this in just a few days.
Tack change
Cummings claims that nothing happened until the last two weeks of February, despite noticing the spread of the deadly virus by the end of January.
“Many of the key people enjoyed skiing,” he told Congressmen a little chillingly, telling himself that he was also working on HS2, cabinet reshuffle, and national security issues.
Behind the scenes, he claimed that Boris Johnson described the coronavirus as “swine flu,” and joked that live television Chris Whitty should inject the virus.
However, by February 11, Matt Hancock announced plans for the hospital to build an emergency quarantine facility, stating that the government would take all necessary precautions to protect public safety.
“The situation will get worse before it gets better,” the Minister of Health told Commons. By this time 13, the British had been diagnosed with the virus and contact tracing had begun.
On the same day, Professor Whitti met with MPs on the new crisis, with some questioning the lack of urgency within the government.
Cummings told parliamentarians that he was very worried about the imminent crisis by the end of February and began panicking in the belief that the country was about to be blocked.
He claimed he was concerned about what the government was trying to do. Herd immunity policy This is to avoid the more deadly second wave. Still, he said he was “reluctant” to ask for a change in the plan “by pressing the red button.”
Despite attending the March 5 Witenagemot, Cummings said he had not yet advised the Prime Minister that something was wrong, even though the only means mentioned was the shield. It was.
On March 7, data analyst Ben Warner claimed that when he told him that herd immunity plans would be “incredibly destructive,” he finally realized he had to do something. I will. By March 13th, he had come up with “Plan B”. This is forever engraved on the whiteboard photo.
However, wise minutes show that by March 10, experts had already had 10,000 cases in the UK and were concerned that there was an infection in the community or hospital. By March 13, Sage warned that Britain was ahead of the epidemic curve and needed to be socially distant than previously expected.
Therefore, Cummings claims that Sage is addicted to group sync, but the document shows that the group was already aware of what it needed to do. By March 16, Sage had He said social distance needs to be implemented as soon as possible and warned that the capacity of the intensive care unit could be compromised by early April by March 18.
Blow the whistle
Cummings also claims that on March 13, Deputy Secretary Helen MacNamara admitted and warned that there was no pandemic program. “I think we’ll kill thousands of people.”
But he told parliamentarians almost two months ago that he asked number 10 officials to investigate the pandemic program. Did he just forget to follow up?
He told parliamentarians:
“Since the last week of February, a lot of things have been wrong, but about the consequences of I pulling a large thread and saying that the official plan was wrong and it would kill everyone. , I was incredibly afraid.
Instead, he seems to have left McNamara to make a decisive decision. Or, as Greg Clark, chair of the Election Commission, said, he was a whistleblower and forgot to blow the whistle.
Care home
One of the things Cummings felt “shocking” was when he noticed in April that NHS patients were being sent to a care facility without being tested.
“We were categorically told in March that people would be tested before returning to the care facility,” he told parliamentarians. “Government rhetoric tells us that we are around the care facility. It was to put a shield. We did the exact opposite of putting a shield around them. We sent people infected with Covid back to the care facility. “
Cummings claims that Matt Hancock said he and the prime minister would be tested. But as far as we know, the Minister of Health has never made this promise.
As early as February 24, the UK Public Health Service issued coronavirus guidance suggesting that it is unsafe to discharge untested individuals from hospitals for home care.
“There are no discharges to long-term care facilities or housing,” the report added. “Patients who are not cases, have no symptoms compatible with Covid-19, and are medically suitable for discharge can be discharged home with quarantine / home quarantine.”
However, the guidance changed on March 19th. Just as hospitals no longer have to avoid sending patients to long-term care facilities Was the decision Was severely criticized And it was overturned by the government after the epidemic.
On March 26, the National Care Forum warned Hancock and Johnson that care facilities were under pressure despite symptoms of untested discharged patients.
Public Health England told Care Home that due to lack of testing, a new coronavirus infection could occur upon readmission and the hospital was instructed to leave the patient as soon as possible and vacate the bed. Told. Also, there were no tests available to staff or residents.
The government announced the Adult Social Care Action Plan on April 15. The plan did not announce that NHS Trusts should test all patients before returning to the care home or newly admitted to the care home, regardless of whether the patient has symptoms. ..
“Charlatan” of action
One of the reasons Cummings avoids blockades and restrictions is Behavioral scientist I thought the public wouldn’t agree.
“Basically, it was almost universal that we couldn’t think of doing anything like Taiwan in January, February, or March,” he told MPs. It was.
“The problem is that there are many charlatans in this field of behavioral science, and anyone who has been involved in the world of politics knows that the whole field is filled with dust research. That is. “
Instead of warning about non-compliance, the March 4 report of the Science Pandemic Insights Group on Behavior (SPI-B) provides empirical evidence of measures under consideration, such as school closures, social distances, and restrictions. It states that it is not enough. About public gatherings and isolation of symptomatological cases and at-risk civilians.
Professor Susan Michie, director of the UCL Behavioral Transformation Center at University College London, said: “Cummings does not seem to understand the role of SPI-B or the contribution of behavioral scientists in the group.
“SPI-B has not been asked or commented on which interventions are effective or when they should be initiated. Instead, the group predicts recommended interventions. And you will be asked to provide advice aimed at helping you comply with it. “
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