#Tory plans for #Covid19 have fallen into incoherence. Can anybody #makeitmakesense?
I don’t get it, so I’m willing to bet that you don’t either.
Covid-19 infections in the UK have skyrocketed over the Christmas period – and that’s just those we know about!
At the time of writing, the number of new cases in England and Scotland stood at 157, 758 on January 3. Those for Wales and Northern Ireland were not included in the figures from Public Health England.
And there is a shortage of test kits, meaning the figures available to us are likely to represent only a fraction of the real total.
Only 42 deaths have been recorded. Again, these are likely to be a fraction of the real total, but the figure is one of the best This Writer has seen in months.
The number of hospitalisations is not listed on any of the press releases I’ve seen, but it likely to be around 9-10,000. That’s about 50 per cent more than the previous week, indicating that while the Omicron variant may not kill people, it will certainly put them in hospital, tying up NHS resources.
The government’s response? Revive Nightingale hospitals.
That’s right. Apparently eight new Nightingales are being set up in car parks across the UK, aiming to provide 4,000 extra beds for Covid-19 patients.
Sadly, there are no extra NHS staff available to run these so-called hospitals. The NHS is overstretched, just staffing the genuine hospitals it has. Boris Johnson’s claim to be recruiting 50,000 new nurses had the same validity as most of his pronouncements (in other words, none at all) and Sajid Javid’s appeal for former healthcare professionals to help out has fallen on deaf ears.
It seems both men are hoping that nobody will realise that a tent in a car park without hospital staff isn’t a hospital; it’s just a tent – in a car park.
Heaven help you if you end up being sent there.
While all this was going on, the government assured everybody in England that it was perfectly safe to enjoy New Year parties – without any health protection measures at all. This was probably motivated by fear of being shamed again if evidence comes to light of more Downing Street parties at a time when people were not allowed to enjoy themselves, and hope that the inevitable increase in Covid cases comes as those with other causes start to tail off.
Oh, and the shortage of NHS staff is not being addressed at all. In fact, the Tories have refused to provide the FFP2 or FFP3 face masks that will protect them from being infected by their patients, meaning he is deliberately directing the NHS towards what could be its worst ever winter crisis.
Then there’s the question of schools.
The new term begins on January 4 (which could be today, depending on when you’re reading this), with only one health protection measure in place: secondary pupils must wear masks.
There is no plan to address the acute shortage of teachers caused by the government’s refusal to impose protections on their health after the Omicron variant arrived in the UK.
This means classes – and indeed entire schools – are likely to close this month.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has told head teachers to consider merging classes (to ensure that pupils who may not be infected have a chance to catch Covid from those who are?) or sending groups of pupils home if staff absences reach critical levels.
This suggests that his own appeal for former teachers to volunteer to help has fallen on the same stony ground as his colleague Javid’s did within the NHS. And quite right, too – retired staff are in the Covid-19 danger zone and must consider their own safety first.
So government policy is another massive contradiction. Health protection measures are minimal and the assumption is that schools will stay open until closure is the only choice remaining to them – meaning they must become breeding grounds for the virus, once again.
Calls for better ventilation, filtration, and social distancing have been rejected by the government – possibly because acting on them would involve spending money, and the only spending the Tories plan to do on Covid-19 is wasting cash by handing it to their friends (no matter how amateur they may be).
Sadly we cannot expect opposition to any of these hare-brained policies from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Starmer supported, to the hilt, everything Johnson has done – and failed to do – about Covid-19. That includes demanding that schools should stay open.
A U-turn now would leave him and his Tepid Tory party wide open to criticism from the real Tories.
Labour had the chance to demand school safety, support for the vulnerable, and help for businesses but squandered it. Now it is too late for Starmer to change.
Add it all up and it makes nonsense of Boris Johnson’s claim that the UK is in an “incomparably better” position than this time last year.
We are on the edge of a cliff and he is trying to push us over.
That’s unless you can make it make sense for the rest of us.
Social media comments on the information supporting this article – and more – are below:
https://twitter.com/BBCLauraKT/status/1476519186008576001
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/status/1476908997349412865
Pubs are open but supposed wards are being built in car parks when the real crisis is with NHS staff shortages due to Covid. Literally none of this makes sense. https://t.co/Wq9KgG2QZy
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) December 31, 2021
8 new nightingales and 4K new beds? Where are we planning to find the staff? We can’t even staff our own wards properly 🤦🏼♀️
— Chloe X (@clopurcellx) December 30, 2021
It’s safe for us to party without restrictions, says Johnson, yet the government is building emergency wards in hospital car parks (don’t ask how they will be staffed, Johnson hasn’t thought about that).
In what parallel universe does such a contradictory policy make any sense?
— Marcus Chown (@marcuschown) December 30, 2021
Shame on those cynics who doubted Boris Johnson would keep his pledge to build 40 new hospitals. #TentsInCarParks ⛺️ 🏥 pic.twitter.com/obqbyqye56
— Bath Ordinary Left (@OrdLeftBath) December 31, 2021
If Boris Johnson had kept his promises on 50,000 new nurses & 40 new hospitals we would be much better placed.
Tents in car parks won’t cut it.
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) December 30, 2021
A quick reminder
A hospital tent without staff is a tent
— John Lewis (@JohnLewisEU) December 30, 2021
Sajid Javid wants NHS volunteers, but he won't provide FFP3 masks, or apply restrictions.
Nadhim Zahawi wants volunteer teachers, but he won't encourage mask wearing or ventilate schools.
Both men are literally facilitating the problems for which they want solutions 🤦♂️
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) December 30, 2021
Build more nightingale hubs to increase more capacity
But DON’T protect frontline staff with FFP2 or FFP3 masks and DON’T put in ventilation/air filtering measures at schools to protect kids and staff
Bonkers 🤦🏾♂️
— Dr Amir Khan GP (@DrAmirKhanGP) December 30, 2021
On the 4th January millions of teachers and students return to the classroom amidst a surging omicron pandemic. Currently a national shortage of PCR and LFTs. Still no changes to school safety – no masks, no ventilation, no filtration, no social distancing.
How does that work?
— Mrs (@teachingaeons) December 29, 2021
I want HEPA filtration for 2022 https://t.co/CYDsOqYScT Clean water made city living possible in the nineteenth century. Engineers delivered it. Clean air is what we now need in the 21st century. And it would be easy to deliver. So why isn't it happening?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) December 31, 2021
Why are we setting up field hospitals if the threat from #covid19 isn’t high enough to introduce more public protections?
— Dr Kelly 🏳️🌈🇪🇺 (@KellyQuilt) December 30, 2021
If you're planning erecting tent hospitals in car parks while not doing anything to limit social interaction at New Year, you are culpable for any deaths that occur.
— Alex Tiffin (@RespectIsVital) December 30, 2021
The Covid catastrophe, which is coming at us like a freight train in the night, was avoidable. It will lag the mixing of Christmas & New Year by 2-4 weeks. Already, huge NHS staff shortages because of Covid. More than 40+ off at hospice where my wife works.
Johnson did nothing.
— Marcus Chown (@marcuschown) December 31, 2021
“…the NHS is now on a war footing.” Says NHS Medical Director.
“People should celebrate New Year’s Eve” Says Johnson.
Could he care any less?
— Dr Dan Goyal (@danielgoyal) December 30, 2021
No matter what your political persuasion it is truly remarkable that there’s absolutely no direction coming from @BorisJohnson whatsoever: no conciliatory or comforting message, no comment on the extraordinary COVID figures released today, nothing! An abject failure of leadership
— John Gordon Sinclair Blue Tick (@Jgs_x) December 30, 2021
Experts project daily COVID infection could peak at 1.4 million https://t.co/dyQiYIf1Yx
— Lisa (she/her) (@Sandyboots2020) December 30, 2021
It turns out the biggest super spreader of #COVID19 is capitalism.
— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) December 30, 2021
Don't forget, the deaths are reflective of the infection rates 2/3 weeks ago… a lot worse to come
— Lepista (@Lepista) December 30, 2021
For those arguing that the huge increases in hospital patients with Covid "don't matter" because they're really there for another reason:
The latest data (for 21 Dec) show, in fact, that 70% of the 6,245 Covid inpatients in England were being treated *primarily* for Covid. pic.twitter.com/z5RkKBj6Vb
— Dr Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) December 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1476863482528210968
I’ve just seen a brilliant phrase “we don’t blame the moon for the night”.
NHS staff need to stop being blamed for the pandemic 💙
— Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 (@JujuliaGrace) December 30, 2021
“Am I to understand correctly that, after all the information you’ve received today, the decision you’re making is to ‘sit tight and assess’?”
‘Don’t look up’ feels a little bit too well-observed at the moment.
— Kit Yates (@Kit_Yates_Maths) December 31, 2021
Anybody out there think it’s possibly convenient that we’re running out of tests?
That way we don’t know the TRUE numbers of new Covid cases.
Which means the govt can avoid stringent measures during the holiday period.
Cynical? Suspicious? You bet we are.
— Keep Our NHS Public (@keepnhspublic) December 30, 2021
Very good news that the Welsh government is loaning the UK government 4 million tests. A big thank you to Mark Drakeford. But why on earth has the Welsh Labour government managed to plan for the increased demand for tests but the Conservative UK government has not?
— Bill Esterson (@Bill_Esterson) December 30, 2021
It's engrained in their most hardwired ideologies, if your level of wealth is in the bottom 50% or so, the Tories couldn't care less if you died.
— Matt Thomas (@Trickyjabs) December 30, 2021
How can Labour front bench criticise the Govt covid strategy now when they voted with them on the Covid emergency measures and didn’t make demands re school safety , the most vulnerable, or support for businesses when they had the chance?
— Thelma Walker (@Thelma_DWalker) December 30, 2021
“our position this December 31st is incomparably better” – Johnson https://t.co/J8vNYdY3Ml
— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) December 31, 2021
Reasons to be pessimistic https://t.co/P7Xaqq5f7e With a government as reckless or incompetent as the one we have now there are few reasons to be optimistic about 2022. After all, they don't care if we die or not, so what else don't they bother about?
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) December 31, 2021
Yesterday a group of Covid deniers stormed a Liverpool hospital, threatened staff, accused them of “aiding and abetting genocide” & tried to remove an elderly patient from a Covid ward.
How can we possibly have arrived here?https://t.co/JPA4EaVDBr
— Dr Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) December 30, 2021
Every time you see something crazy in the news about Covid, like anti-vaxers attacking hospitals, or even just the infection rates… Remember this:
The majority of our country's leaders were elected on the principle that it's OK to go against experts in the name of 'freedom'.
— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) December 31, 2021