Johnson under fire over handling of coronavirus crisis

[snoop1130]

Johnson under fire over handling of coronavirus crisis

By Guy Faulconbridge, Estelle Shirbon

 

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves as he leaves Downing Street, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues. London, Britain, March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday faced a call for an inquiry into his government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis after failing to fully explain partial death data, limited testing or the lack of equipment for hospitals.

 

The novel coronavirus outbreak, the worst health crisis since the 1918 influenza pandemic, has left governments across the world grappling with stressed populations, a stalled global economy and overloaded health services.

 

Johnson initially refrained from approving the stringent controls that other European leaders imposed but he later closed down the country when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die in the United Kingdom.

 

Since the lockdown, though, the government has given conflicting explanations of why it failed to join a European Union ventilator scheme and admitted there have been problems getting health workers enough protective equipment.

 

“Once we are through this crisis, there will of course need to be an independent inquiry to officially review the government’s response to the pandemic,” Ed Davey, acting leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said in a statement.

 

“The inquiry must have the strongest possible powers given the shocking failures on protective equipment for staff and the slow response of the government - to get to the truth and to give Boris Johnson the opportunity to answer the increasingly serious questions.”

 

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has also said the government was slow to respond and that at some point the United Kingdom will have to look back at the crisis.

 

Johnson battled grave COVID-19 complications in intensive care earlier this month. He has been recuperating but making some calls and holding some meetings.

 

DEATHS, TESTS, VENTILATORS

 

The true extent of Britain’s COVID-19 death toll was more than 40% higher than the government’s daily figures indicated as of April 10, according to official data that put the country on track to become among the worst-hit in Europe.

 

The latest hospital death data show 17,337 people had died after testing positive across the United Kingdom.

 

The Financial Times said an analysis of the latest data from the statistics office showed the outbreak had caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom.

 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told reporters that the 40% gap between the daily data and the more comprehensive ONS data was “not an accurate representation of those figures”.

 

There was also confusion over ventilators.

 

The top official in Britain’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday he had been mistaken when he told a committee of lawmakers the government had made a political decision not to participate in a European scheme to buy ventilators to fight the coronavirus.

 

On testing too, Britain is far behind some European peers such as Germany.

 

Hancock has faced questions about a pledge to get to 100,000 tests per day done by the end of this month. So far just over 18,200 tests are being done per day.

 

The Daily Mirror said in an editorial: “(Johnson’s) inept government is plunging incompetence to dangerous depths.”

 

“Those responsible must be held to account if people are dying needlessly,” the left-wing newspaper said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-22

 

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[steve187]

everyone in power is to blame and only the parties not in power have the answers to what should be done,

its no time for the blame game, its time to look after the health professionals

[smedly]

Ed Davey (a complete nob) and Keir Starmer (not much better)

 

not much more to say than that 

[Martin Spence]

Get us back to work or there will be no economy 

[smedly]

20 minutes ago, steve187 said:

everyone in power is to blame and only the parties not in power have the answers to what should be done,

its no time for the blame game, its time to look after the health professionals

I listened the Adam Boulton on skynews earlier today

 

He interviewed some professor who was the chairman/representative of the "Independent Care home Organisation" or something, what Boulton fails to realise is that most Care Homes in the UK are privately run Independent Businesses and the owners make huge money, they have their own staff - training - standards - procurement - and are privately run, nothing to do with the NHS or the Government - they are private businesses 

 

So if they have (deleted) up with their safety procedures and not maintained standards  it has nothing to do with the Government or the NHS, it is all down to them - they are private companies

[7by7]

I see the BoJo apologists are out and about. 

 

Let them answer this: if Johnson's initial response was the best he could do at the time, why did he deliberately not attend five Cobra meetings on the virus? 

 

That's not a mistake, that's not even incompetence. That's ignoring his responsibility as Prime Minister. 

[AussieBob18]

Any blame should be first and foremost placed on China.  WHO next. Then local authorities and Govts.

 

[7by7]

53 minutes ago, smedly said:

Ed Davey (a complete nob) and Keir Starmer (not much better)

 

not much more to say than that 

No one can ever accuse The Mail of being lefties, the opposite in fact. 

 

But they seem quite impressed with Starmer's performance at PMQs. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8245001/Keir-Starmer-tears-Dominic-Raab-coronavirus-blunders.html

[3NUMBAS]

the labour losers are clutching at strawers as they have mada balls up ..so silly brownypoints are their aim .thank god corby wasnt in power at this time he would be dithering about what to do

[Sujo]

27 minutes ago, AussieBob18 said:

Any blame should be first and foremost placed on China.  WHO next. Then local authorities and Govts.

 

Dont know how you blame anyone but the govt for lack of ppe and lying about death numbers.

 

Does china and WHO dictate to the UK how to respond to the crisis. The response that was way behind other countries?

[CG1 Blue]

45 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

I see the BoJo apologists are out and about. 

 

Let them answer this: if Johnson's initial response was the best he could do at the time, why did he deliberately not attend five Cobra meetings on the virus? 

 

That's not a mistake, that's not even incompetence. That's ignoring his responsibility as Prime Minister. 

Johnson was following the advice of SAGE and NERVTAG. At the time when he didn't attend the COBRA meetings, SAGE and NERVTAG advised that the Covid 19 threat level was only 'moderate'. All the relevant experts and department heads were at those meetings. 

The Times article you are referring to is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It is sensationalising for the sake of it. Articles like this bank on people not reading thoroughly enough, or researching, and falling for the sound bites. 

Edited April 22, 2020 by CG1 Blue

[Sujo]

Just now, 3NUMBAS said:

the labour losers are clutching at strawers as they have mada balls up ..so silly brownypoints are their aim .thank god corby wasnt in power at this time he would be dithering about what to do

As opposed to johnson who dithered about attending meetings, getting ppe.

 

How much didnt he dither.

[3NUMBAS]

43 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

I see the BoJo apologists are out and about. 

 

Let them answer this: if Johnson's initial response was the best he could do at the time, why did he deliberately not attend five Cobra meetings on the virus? 

 

That's not a mistake, that's not even incompetence. That's ignoring his responsibility as Prime Minister. 

he is not required to go to every cobra meeting as he can use his underlings

[Sujo]

Just now, CG1 Blue said:

Johnson was following the advice of SAGE and NERVTAG. At the time when he didn't attend the COBRA meetings, SAGE and NERVTAG advised that the Covid 19 threat level was 'moderate'. 

The Times article you are referring to is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It is sensationalising for the sake of it. Articles like this bank on people not reading thoroughly enough, or researching, and falling for the sound bites. 

so you think johnson did the right thing at the right time and all is going well.

[CG1 Blue]

3 minutes ago, Sujo said:

Dont know how you blame anyone but the govt for lack of ppe and lying about death numbers.

 

Does china and WHO dictate to the UK how to respond to the crisis. The response that was way behind other countries?

I agree the PPE situation has been handled abysmally. The government should have appointed a person / team to oversee the process much earlier. 

 

But you should also know that UK law prohibits government ministers from interfering in the NHS procurement process. There are people within NHS management being paid a lot of money to manage NHS procurement. They also need to be held accountable. 

 

 

[CG1 Blue]

6 minutes ago, Sujo said:

so you think johnson did the right thing at the right time and all is going well.

Yes, Johnson did the right thing. He followed the advice of SAGE and NERVTAG. You would be the first person to complain if the PM (a politician) ignored the advice of highly qualified medical and virology experts.

 

Would you have ignored those experts then? 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

everyone in power is to blame and only the parties not in power have the answers to what should be done,

its no time for the blame game, its time to look after the health professionals

Providing them with PPE and the equipment they need to do their job might be a start.

[sammieuk1]

If only there was a general available to guide us and it would be a whole lot cheaper with thinner people to????

[fishtank]

Bungle has screwed up big time.

He even managed to nearly kill himself.

Him and his muppet friends Raab, Pritti Patel etc will be made to pay for this dereliction of duty.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

I listened the Adam Boulton on skynews earlier today

 

He interviewed some professor who was the chairman/representative of the "Independent Care home Organisation" or something, what Boulton fails to realise is that most Care Homes in the UK are privately run Independent Businesses and the owners make huge money, they have their own staff - training - standards - procurement - and are privately run, nothing to do with the NHS or the Government - they are private businesses 

 

So if they have (deleted) up with their safety procedures and not maintained standards  it has nothing to do with the Government or the NHS, it is all down to them - they are private companies

“So if they have (deleted) up with their safety procedures and not maintained standards  it has nothing to do with the Government or the NHS, it is all down to them - they are private companies”

 

Wrong:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/care-quality-commission

[Chomper Higgot]

54 minutes ago, AussieBob18 said:

Any blame should be first and foremost placed on China.  WHO next. Then local authorities and Govts.

 

China are not responsible for the UK Government’s response to the Pandemic.

[7by7]

1 hour ago, smedly said:

<snip>

I listened the Adam Boulton on skynews earlier today

 

He interviewed some professor who was the chairman/representative of the "Independent Care home Organisation" or something, what Boulton fails to realise is that most Care Homes in the UK are privately run Independent Businesses and the owners make huge money, they have their own staff - training - standards - procurement - and are privately run, nothing to do with the NHS or the Government - they are private businesses 

 

So if they have (deleted) up with their safety procedures and not maintained standards  it has nothing to do with the Government or the NHS, it is all down to them - they are private companies

 

I cannot find the interview to which you refer. Neither can I find an organisation with a name anything like the one you sort of remember. 

 

I did find this BBC interview with the director of the National Care Forum.

 

Most care homes in the UK are non profit organisations funded in part by the NHS. You seem to be confusing care homes with retirement homes, most of which are as you describe. 

[Chomper Higgot]

27 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

Johnson was following the advice of SAGE and NERVTAG. At the time when he didn't attend the COBRA meetings, SAGE and NERVTAG advised that the Covid 19 threat level was only 'moderate'. All the relevant experts and department heads were at those meetings. 

The Times article you are referring to is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It is sensationalising for the sake of it. Articles like this bank on people not reading thoroughly enough, or researching, and falling for the sound bites. 

The Pandemic was already major international news and already causing deaths in Europe and the UK, the seriousness of the situation was very clear.

 

Johnson was asleep at the wheel, or worse still, unconcerned as his failed ‘Herd Immunity Experiment ‘ took its toll.

[darksidedog]

Firstly I ask posters to keep things polite and on topic.

With the possible exception of South Korea pretty much everyone got their approach wrong.

There will be time to assess exactly what happened down the track.

This caught everyone by surprise and I for one am very happy I didn't have to make any of the calls that have been made.

Catch 22 if ever there was one.

[Chomper Higgot]

34 minutes ago, 3NUMBAS said:

he is not required to go to every cobra meeting as he can use his underlings

Attending in person to those called to address the threat of an ongoing deadly pandemic might be a good idea.

[CG1 Blue]

19 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The Pandemic was already major international news and already causing deaths in Europe and the UK, the seriousness of the situation was very clear.

 

Johnson was asleep at the wheel, or worse still, unconcerned as his failed ‘Herd Immunity Experiment ‘ took its toll.

So you think a politician should ignore the advice of the country's top experts in virology and medical matters? 

 

"Johnson's herd immunity experiment" - that's just more anti-Boris sound bites 

[Tippaporn]

22 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Attending in person to those called to address the threat of an ongoing deadly pandemic might be a good idea.

Arm chair quarterbacking, Chomper?  Hindsight is always 20/20.  You speak as though you would have made all the correct decisions if you were you the one in command.  I would hardly think so.  Best you show some respect for those who did the best they could.  I have no respect for know-it-alls, especially those speaking after the fact.

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Tippaporn

[Chomper Higgot]

5 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

So you think a politician should ignore the advice of the country's top experts in virology and medical matters? 

 

"Johnson's herd immunity experiment" - that's just more anti-Boris sound bites 

There was stark disagreement between the nation’s ‘top Experts....’, not all were on board with Johnson’s Failed Herd Immunity Experiment, as Imperial College London demonstrated.

 

[Chomper Higgot]

3 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Arm chair quarterbacking, Chomper?  Hindsight is always 20/20.  You speak as though you would have made all the correct decisions if you were you the one in command.  I would hardly think so.  Best you show some respect for those who did the best they could.  I have no respect for know-it-alls, especially those speaking after the fact.

 

Ad Hominem.

 

 

[sammieuk1]

As I have been totally outsmarted and overtaken by spiraling events so I think some slack should be given to Boris and co mistakes have been made lives have been lost vast amounts of cash has been thrown even I got a bit now a habitual resident granted, and a little bit of universal credit to boot who would've thought that after 20 years away these are unequaled unknown times where no one knows what the hell will happen next ????