A medical worker tests swabs for the novel coronavirus at the Microbiology department of North Devon District Hospital, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease , in Barnstaple, Britain, June 3, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
The agency is much smaller and has a lower profile than the vast National Health Service that oversees Britain’s hospitals, clinics and general practitioners, providing healthcare to all. Public Health England’s 5,500 staff have an important supporting role running laboratories, developing tests for new infections and managing outbreaks in England, home to 56 million of the UK’s 67 million people.
Now, a Reuters investigation reveals further missteps and failures by officials and government agencies, including Selbie’s Public Health England, in testing, tracking and tracing. Among decisions that doctors and epidemiologists say cost lives were:• Deciding on a narrower definition of COVID-19 than used by the World Health Organization and other countries.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said his government followed scientific advice at all times. Ministers point out that from mid-April, the UK dramatically increased the number of tests carried out and recruited thousands of contact tracers to control outbreaks. Several senior doctors, who led the response to COVID-19 at major hospitals, told Reuters the fog was partly a result of early decisions by Whitty and other advisers that restricted testing for the virus. The doctors asked not to be named because they were not authorised by the NHS to speak publicly.
Spector, the King’s College professor, said Britain’s refusal to recognize more symptoms created space for the virus to spread. Because testing was restricted to people exhibiting the UK’s narrow range of symptoms, many cases likely went unnoticed and the virus spread unchecked. Britain also restricted testing in other ways. At first it would test only those who had come into contact with confirmed cases and those with symptoms who had travelled from Wuhan, China, the origin of the outbreak, then from February 1 the rest of China, and six days later from other parts of Asia. Parts of Italy, the first European country to be badly hit by the virus, and Iran were added on February 25. Others were excluded.
Our government are incompetent murderers!
do u reuters dipshits honestly think we are gonna track every case of a world wide pandemic...fake new BS!
Britain?
I bet there will be no accountability because the people in charge have no moral compass and hate their citizens.
“Every mistake that was made did, unfortunately, cost lives,” said Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London.
I think Reuters lost the narrative!