Matt Hancock trashes Tory Covid-19 policy at the Covid Inquiry
Matt Hancock: he was a Covid-19 super-spreader, if you remember.
Yesterday (Tuesday, June 27) was Matt Hancock’s big day at the Covid Inquiry – and he didn’t waste any words trashing Tory policy.
This Writer’s problem will be if there’s a discrepancy between what he’s saying now and what he did back then – spring 2020 onwards. I’m pretty sure there is, but let’s establish what he said first.
Matt Hancock tells covid inquiry
“the irony is one of the major problems we had early on was covid 19 has asymptomatic transmission.. and the WHO assumption was that this wasn’t possible until April 2020”
We can all see where this is going pic.twitter.com/lf0SWSilm1
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) June 27, 2023
Oh dear! He fell at the first hurdle.
This Site has covered the matter of asymptomatic transmission – and especially how it related to care homes – extensively. You can get a flavour of it in this article about a leak of WhatsApp messages earlier this year – and it also contains many links to other articles on the subject.
Hancock also had a few things to say about care homes…
2020 Hancock says they put a protective ring around care homes
2023 Hancock admits they did not know how many care homes there were in the country pic.twitter.com/5PlcPxBVwT
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) June 27, 2023
The Covid-19 Inquiry demonstrates that the Department of Health and Social Care had nothing even close to a plan for protecting vulnerable people in care homes from a pandemic
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Hancock amends. He confirms he was responsible for social care "policy" but not the execution of policy – which was for local authorities
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Here’s a biggie: BREXIT ENDED LIVES:
Hancock says he signed off a decision to re-allocate departmental resources from pandemic preparation to no-deal Brexit preparation on the advice of Sir Chris Witty, the chief medical officer, and of the Department of Health's permanent secretary, Sir Chris Wormald. He Hancock…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Boris Johnson has been giving interviews saying “Brexit saved lives”
Now listen to the shocking evidence given by former Health Secretary Matt Hancock to the covid inquiry today pic.twitter.com/DfVW6NXhdq
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) June 27, 2023
The Covid19 barrister Hugo Keith is demonstrating meticulously how an important cost of no-deal Brexit planning was the shift of resources away from protecting the UK from the impact of "high consequence infectious diseases"
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Oh hang on – Hancock reckons some of the Brexit preparedness stuff would have helped with Covid-19, too…
"We came extremely close, within hours, of running out of medicines for intensive care during the pandemic" [!!!] says Hancock. He claims that this narrow escape was a benefit of preparing for a no-deal Brexit. But the Covid-19 counsel says lots of other pandemic preparation -…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Hancock confirms that his department's preparation for a "no deal Brexit" displaced work on protecting the UK against a pandemic (in this case a flu pandemic, but such preparation would have also helped protect against Covid19)
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
For the rest, I’m going to rely on a lot of information from Robert Peston, who was live-tweeting while Hancock was giving his testimony. It runs as follows:
Hancock's central argument is that in January and February 2020, when the pandemic was close, he inherited a "doctrine" – in the Cygnus document about a potential flu pandemic, and more broadly – that was too fatalistic. A lockdown to prevent its spread was not contemplated…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
The relevant subcommittee, that he says he never recalls attending, is called the sub-committee on "Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingencies"
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Absolutely astonishing document revealed by Covid-19 inquiry in its grilling of Matt Hancock. It is attached and shows risk assessment of potential health shocks. Risk of major infectious disease is flagged as high (red alert) but the mitigation boxes are empty of any content.… pic.twitter.com/vvSI5OapJ5
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
“I was assured the UK planning was among the best – and in some cases the best – in the world”. Hancock blames Whitehall and his predecessors, and the advice he was given, for the failure to prepare for the Covid19 pandemic
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
The Pandemic Flu Readiness Board did not meet for a year before the pandemic, the Covid-19 counsel reveals. Hancock said he was not aware of that failure to meet
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
As late as 2018, the Pandemic Influence Preparedness board identified a shortage of personal protective equipment and respirators, and this was never corrected!!! Hancock simply says lessons have to be learned, though doesn't explain why the warning was ignored
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
In a nutshell, Hancock says none of the halting and delaying of pandemic preparation really matters, and also the cost of preparing for the wrong pandemic (flu rather than a coronavirus) wasn't that important, because the biggest mistake was one he inherited – namely there was a…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 27, 2023
Let’s have a response from people who lost family members because of the government’s Covid-19 failures:
to plan to save lives, instead focusing their attentions on disposal of bodies in what they accepted as an ‘inevitable’ crisis.
(2/6)— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) June 27, 2023
Matt Hancock repeatedly pointed towards pre-existing flaws in social care system, leaving us wondering why those flaws were allowed to persist in the decade in which Matt Hancock’s party was in power.
(4/6)— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) June 27, 2023
Most of all, we want to know why we have suffered the sixth worst death toll in the world, and we need reassurances that the catastrophic failures leading to the death of 227,871 loved one will be learned from, and never repeated again.
(6/6)— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) June 27, 2023
For the moment, I’m presenting this evidence as it is. Feel free to draw your own conclusions about it. I’ll want some time to look into the implications.
It seems certain the inquiry will turn up more – and possibly even more damning – evidence as it continues.
