For too long over recent times, we in the UK became obsessed with the psychodrama that sucked the lifeblood out of virtually every other issue. Brexit, like a serial TV boxed set with an increasingly implausible plot, hypnotized us with its ‘no deal’ hypotheses and Parliamentary poker, so that our ability to see real-life happening around us was strangled.
Did we miss the rising wave of knife crime that was becoming so commonplace on our city streets? Certainly. Did we miss the growing threat of a virus in the Far East becoming global, with the subsequent shutdown that we are having to live through now? Probably.
Watch out for all the recriminations once the first wave has blown over. Did the Government follow the right strategy in going for the lockdown? Did they take too long to implement it? Were we right to protect a cohort of elderly people at the cost of trashing the economy? (Remember the economy is people, it’s about people’s health and welfare.)
Why were we not better prepared for something that every respected epidemiologist in the world and Bill Gates was predicting years ago?
Why was Jeremy Hunt allowed to suppress the publication of Cygna: The Threat To Public Health Exercise Report of October 2016, which warned of the total lack of preparedness of the NHS?
Why do we have to import every roll of toilet paper into the UK, which results in the destruction of eucalyptus forests in South America? Why the devil can’t we make our own?
There will be demands for inquiries into this and that – there will be lawsuits and civil proceedings, demands for resignations and heads will roll, especially at Public Health England. At the moment ministers and civil servants alike are all desperately trying to cover their backs.
And there will be the second wave, and maybe a third.
It’s going to be messy.
As always comments would be welcome. Stay safe.
Great blog - thought-provoking