Dear friends (including many joining in recent weeks)
Corona Confusion: lies, deceit, trickery and failure
The shocking and rising UK death toll from the pandemic is now the highest in Europe.
Wirral, where most DONHS activists are based, is one of the country’s worst-affected boroughs.
Yet the scale of the heartbreaking human tragedies which result was not inevitable. The crisis has been made worse – and the number of deaths has been multiplied – by the failure of the government to act promptly and adequately in response.
Their evident incompetence, their arrogant dismissal of criticism, and their litany of lies, deceit, trickery and failure are appalling. The long list below represents a shameful catalogue*.
What is to be done?
Well, we’re starting by inviting you to a rally. Yes, it’s a Zoom meeting** which we know many of you are using for social and serious reasons at this time. It’s easy to add to your device and to use.
The rally will be on Wednesday 3rd June from 7:00pm. We have invited several guest speakers. Professor Allyson Pollock and Professor John Ashton have confirmed and other names will be announced.
We are expecting a large attendance so interaction is inevitably limited. But please submit any question for our speakers by email (to the address below) by 27th May at the latest.
More details and confirmation will be sent over the next two weeks.
Please visit (from midnight tonight) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/corona-confusion-lies-deceit-trickery-and-failure-defend-our-nhs-tickets-105310370152
Keep safe
On behalf of Defend Our NHS
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- For anyone who still thinks the Johnson government and predecessors have been doing a good job just take a moment to read this. It is an augmented version of a Facebook post by Ray Harris https://www.facebook.com/ray.harris.7946
The arrogance and incompetence are truly horrifying. This information should be shared widely.
- 2011 Cameron adviser Mark Britnell, who was appointed to a “kitchen cabinet” advising the prime minister on reforming the NHS, tells a conference of executives from the private sector that future reforms would show “no mercy” to the NHS and offer a “big opportunity” to the for-profit sector.
- 2012 Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act is passed with the support of the coalition government. It effectively abolishes a national health service replacing it with a confused jigsaw of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and financial regimes and what are now 42 ‘integrated care systems’.
- The ‘efficiency’ measures of US management consultancy corporation McKinsey and various ‘market-led’ measures are imposed on flailing CCGs.
- 2014-19 Local authority public health budgets are slashed by 35%. And the 10 most deprived areas in England are hit with nearly 15% of all these cuts.
- 2016 is the year that Jeremy Hunt lies about and alienates the junior doctors, provoking a series of strikes against the imposition of unsafe working practices.
- AND the government buries the warnings about the implications of a pandemic from their Exercise Cygnus.
- The re-disorganisation of the NHS continues apace – with the programme of STP (renamed ‘slash, trash and privatise’ by campaigners) accelerating during the crisis which follows.
- 2016-2020 UK government stockpiles containing protective equipment for healthcare workers in the event of a pandemic fall in value by almost 40% over six years.
- December 31st 2019 China alerts WHO to new virus.
- January 23rd 2020 Study reveals a third of China’s patients require intensive care.
- January 24th Johnson misses first Cobra meeting.
- January 29th Johnson misses second Cobra meeting.
- January 31st The NHS declares first ever ‘Level 4 critical incident’ Meanwhile, the government declines to join European scheme to source PPE.
- Early February it’s claimed by the Times that Cummings tells a meeting it was all about “herd immunity, protect[ing] the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad”
- February 5th Johnson misses third Cobra meeting.
- February 12th Johnson misses fourth Cobra meeting. Exeter University publishes study warning the coronaviruscould infect 45 million people in the UK if left unchallenged.
- February 13th Johnson misses conference call with European leaders.
- February 14th Johnson goes away on holiday. Aides are told keeps Johnson’s briefing notes short or he will not read them.
- February 18th Johnson misses fifth Cobra meeting.
- February 26th Johnson announces ‘Herd Immunity’ strategy, announcing some people will lose loved ones. Government document is leaked, predicting half a million Brits could die in ‘worse case scenario’
- February 29th Johnson retreats to his country manor. NHS warns of ‘PPE shortage nightmare’. Stockpiles have dwindled or expired after years of austerity cuts.
- March 2nd Johnson attends his first Cobra meeting, declining another opportunity to join European PPE scheme. Government’s own scientists say over half a million Brits could die if virus left unrestrained. Johnson tells country “We are very, very well prepared.”
- March 3rd Scientists urge Government to advise public not to shake hands. Johnson brags about shaking hands of coronavirus patients.
- March 4th Government stops providing daily updates on virus following a 70% spike in UK cases. They will later U-turn on this amid accusations they are withholding vital information.
- March 5th Johnson tells public to ‘wash their hands and business as usual’
- March 6th Health secretary Hancock says he has talked to supermarkets to safeguard food supplies.
- March 7th Supermarkets say Hancock is lying.
- March 7th Johnson joins 82,000 people at Six Nations rugby match.
- March 9th After Ireland cancels St Patrick’s Day parades, the UK government says there’s “No Rationale” for cancelling sporting events.
- March 10th-13th Cheltenham race meeting takes place. More than a quarter of a million people attend.
- March 11th 3,000 Atletico Madrid fans fly to Liverpool.
- March 11th Cummings asks technology CEO and business leaders in a Downing Street meeting to share skills and talent with the government in order to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
- March 12th Johnson says banning events such as Cheltenham will have little effect. The Imperial College study finds the government’s plan is projected to kill half a million people.
- March 13th The FA suspends the Premier League, citing an absence of Government guidance. Britain is invited to join European scheme for joint purchase of ventilators, and refuses. Johnson lifts restrictions of those arriving from Coronavirus hot spots.
- March 14th Government is still allowing mass gatherings, as Stereophonics play to 5,000 people in Cardiff.
- March 16th Johnson asks Britons not to go to pubs, but allows them to stay open. During a conference call, Johnson jokes that push to build new ventilators should be called ‘Operation Last Gasp’
- March 19th Hospital patients with coronavirus are returned to care homes in a bid to free up hospital space. What follows is an explosion of virus cases in care homes.
- March 20th The Government states that PPE shortage crisis is “Completely resolved”. Less than two weeks later, the British Medical Association reports an acute shortage of PPE.
- March 23rd UK goes into lock-down.
- March 26th Johnson is accused of putting ‘Brexit over Breathing’ by not joining EU ventilator scheme. The government then state they had not joined the scheme because they had ‘missed the email’
- March 27th Both Johnson and Cummings admit to developing COVID-19.
- April 1st The Evening Standard reports that just 0.17% of NHS staff have been tested for the virus.
- April 3rd The UK death toll overtakes China.
- April 5th Johnson admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital.
- April 5th 17.5 million antibody tests, ordered by the government and described by Johnson as a ‘game changer’ are found to be a failure.
- April 7th Johnson is moved to intensive care with coronavirus. He later says the NHS saved his life. Subsequently it is revealed he was not using a ventilator but extra oxygen, a solution not applied universally.
- April 10th FT reports that private clinics in the UK selling COVID-19 testing kits insist they are still able to source supplies, despite complaints from the government that shortages have prevented testing being rolled out more quickly.
- April 16th Flights bring 15,000 people a day into the UK – without virus testing.
- April 17th Health Secretary Matt Hancock says “I would love to be able to wave a magic wand and have PPE fall from the sky.” The UK has now missed four opportunities to join the EU’s PPE scheme.
- April 21st The Government fails to reach its target of face masks for the NHS, as it is revealed manufacturers’ offers of help were met with silence. Instead millions of pieces of PPE are being shipped from the UK to Europe.
- April 23rd-24th Government announces testing kits for 10 million key workers. Orders run out within minutes as only 5,000 are made available.
- April 24th The Guardian reveals that Cummings, and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit are on the secret scientific group advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic.
- April 25th UK death toll from coronavirus overtakes that of The Blitz.
- April 28th Hancock says “Of course care homes have been a top priority right from the start. We’ve strengthened the rules around what happens in care homes and tightened infection control, also making testing available throughout the care centre I think is incredibly important as we’ve ramped up the availability of testing.”
- April 28th A third of all coronavirus deaths in England and Wales are now happening in care homes
- April 29th NHS England (London) sneak out a letter accelerating the integrated care system. Their‘Journey to a New Health and Care System’ states that over the next 12-15 months they hope to keep public engagement to a bare minimum.
- April 30th Johnson announces the UK has succeeded in avoiding a tragedy that had engulfed other parts of the world. At this point, the UK has the 3rd highest death toll in the world.
- May 1st The Government announces it has reached its target of 100,000 tests – They haven’t conducted the tests, but posted the testing kits.
- May 4th It is now clear that Deloitte, KPMG, Serco, Sodexo, Mitie, Boots and the US data mining group Palantir have secured taxpayer-funded commissions to manage COVID-19 drive-in testing centres, the purchasing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the building of Nightingale hospitals.
- May 5th The UK death toll becomes the highest in Europe.
- May 6th Johnson announces the UK could start to lift lock-downrestrictions by next week.
- May 7th Guardian columnist writes that “outsourcing the coronavirus crisis to business has failed – and NHS staff know it”.
- May 16th Hancock says that “right from the start we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.” This is categorically untrue. Care homes were left without testing. Without contract tracing. Without PPE. Without support.
- May 19th On ITV Piers Morgan once again accuses a cabinet minister, talking about testing, of ‘lying through her back teeth’ to BBC viewers.