Criticism of corona management is growing in the kingdom. The health system is poorly prepared.
Boris Johnson is having a rest on Checkers, the official country home of British Prime Ministers, and has already taken a first short walk. But that’s almost the only positive news from the kingdom that is struggling with the corona crisis far more than many European neighbors.
The Office for National Statistics ONS reports that the already comparatively high number of reported deaths – by Tuesday it was almost 12,000 – could be up to 50 percent higher. The discrepancy between published and actual figures is because of that Times citing the ONS that the government only lists cases of deaths who died in NHS facilities, but no deaths from retirement homes or homes. Besides, the data situation is up-to-date because the death tolls are sometimes passed on with a considerable delay. Government chief medical advisor Chris Whitty announced Monday that corona cases had been reported in 15 percent of all retirement homes. This number dates from April 3.
Whitty had recently criticized that the Kingdom was not tested enough and that the British “should learn” from the Germans. The government’s chief medical advisor, Patrick Vallance, now agreed: the public health authority had not reacted quickly enough to the crisis. Public Health top manager Jennie Harries said at a government press conference on March 26 that “testing and finding infected” was “not the right method”.
The renowned epidemiologist Helen Ward from Imperial College, therefore, fell in the Daily Mirror A shocking verdict on the government ‘s response to the crisis so far: “Sadly, so many people had to die because politicians did not take advice. We asked for an earlier lockdown, we advised: test, search, isolate. But that thought they knew better. ” She assumes that there will be a “settlement” after the crisis has subsided.
Not only about the previous procedure, but also about the lack of equipment, there is further controversy. It became known, for example, that the urgently needed ventilators, which the British industry was to develop and build on behalf of the government, have so far not met all the high requirements that have to be met by COVID 19 patients. Because the supply situation for masks and protective clothing in many hospitals is disastrous, the Royal College of Nursing, the association of nurses and nurses, has advised its members to refuse to treat COVID-19 patients if they do not protect themselves sufficiently could.
The British are also very concerned about their economy, especially since the lockdown is said to persist at least until May 7th. The Office for Budget Responsibility, a financial think tank, predicts a 35 percent slump in the economy in the second quarter of this year and an increase in the number of unemployed by two million to ten percent. The deficit will presumably be as high as it has been since the Second World War. Besides, an additional 1.4 million British people have applied for social assistance since the outbreak of the crisis. Because the local authorities are unable to comply, passport authority employees are now used for processing after a short training session.
