Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CovidInquiry
Most recents (24)
.@George_Osborne as fluent as ever in evidence to Covid Inquiry. Cites OBR chair Richard Hughes for saying 'in the absence of perfect foresight', the best prep for a pandemic any Treasury can do is to have a healthy balance sheet to allow flexibility of emergency spending needed
Osborne: “No one said to us there could be a health pandemic that is not influenza for which the likely response is you’re going to have to shut down the economy…This is not disparaging the health experts. "
Adds it doesn’t seem any country prepared like that.
Adds it doesn’t seem any country prepared like that.
Sharp jab at Truss's economic implosion last autumn from Osborne there, when he says her administration showed the need for sound finances [as opposed to borrowing binges]
The #CovidInquiry came roaring to life today and claimed its first victim.
The sad unfortunate was tortured over several hours before being chopped into little pieces.
But the victim in question was NOT David Cameron. Now read on....
The sad unfortunate was tortured over several hours before being chopped into little pieces.
But the victim in question was NOT David Cameron. Now read on....
Dave did appear but the KC was, rightly, not going to waste her energy.
He's done more to damage Britain than any other PM and everyone knows that.
He said he gave us austerity so there was money "in the pot" for things like Covid.
Shortly after, he was quietly ushered out.
He's done more to damage Britain than any other PM and everyone knows that.
He said he gave us austerity so there was money "in the pot" for things like Covid.
Shortly after, he was quietly ushered out.
No, the real victim of today's proceedings was this poor chap - Sir Chris Wormald, perm sec of the Department of Health and Social Care.
He took a kicking the likes of which I've not seen before at an Inquiry - and one that both he and DHSC richly deserve.
He took a kicking the likes of which I've not seen before at an Inquiry - and one that both he and DHSC richly deserve.
Have been at conference in Belgium but media coverage suggests two important errors in emerging #CovidInquiry narrative that should be stamped on. 1/Confusion between seasonal and pandemic influenza and 2/Absence of intelligence about coronaviruses (1/8)
First, influenza is a genetically unstable virus. Every year there is genetic DRIFT which is why vaccines have to be fine tuned although many people will have some immune coverage from previous infections (2/8)
Periodically and unpredictably there is a genetic SHIFT which causes pandemics, as in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. SHIFT is a radical change that, in effect, makes influenza a novel virus for the human population (3/8)
Here's a thread of people to follow here on twitter to keep up with news, views and opinions on the #CovidInquiry
Please feel free to suggest others that should make the list.
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Please feel free to suggest others that should make the list.
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First off the caveat apology of I'll miss people and the list will keep on growing!
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There's @The_TUC and legal teams @DoughtyStPublic @ThompsonsLaw with @GerardStilliard @RubyPeacock19 and colleagues @antoniabance @Alex__Collinson @ShellyAsquith @TUCEquality @TUCeconomics @mattdykes @SianCElliott who all put up far smarter details than I am ever capable of.
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1/
FOCUS ON THE REALITY OF SUNAK
There are many today with the wrong focus
-the #BackBoris #Boris screaming about a kangaroo Court
- Others shouting about Rayner and Starmer - get a grip that was investigated twice
#ToriesOut344 #SunakOut234 #GeneralElectionNow
FOCUS ON THE REALITY OF SUNAK
There are many today with the wrong focus
-the #BackBoris #Boris screaming about a kangaroo Court
- Others shouting about Rayner and Starmer - get a grip that was investigated twice
#ToriesOut344 #SunakOut234 #GeneralElectionNow
2/
- others about Jenkins and attending a party
- even more about Harriet Harman a non voting Chair on a Committee that made a unanimous decision.
Now that is out of the system focus on Sunak reality
- who is laughing at you
- who was fined for attending the same party
- others about Jenkins and attending a party
- even more about Harriet Harman a non voting Chair on a Committee that made a unanimous decision.
Now that is out of the system focus on Sunak reality
- who is laughing at you
- who was fined for attending the same party
3/
- who registered a campaigning website months before any move
- who was one of the first to move against Johnson
- who stated in Parliament that they attended no parties
- the report appendix highlights a no rules culture in Downing St - as evidenced below
- who registered a campaigning website months before any move
- who was one of the first to move against Johnson
- who stated in Parliament that they attended no parties
- the report appendix highlights a no rules culture in Downing St - as evidenced below
One thing I will not miss when it is gone is Rees-Mogg's patrician drawl. His vision for the country is quite the opposite of freedom promised for almost everyone
A thread with perhaps useful context
A longer one with more background
Houchen has been one of the very staunchest Johnson supporters
He believed everyone wants to move on from talking about how Johnson broke rules most followed
Houchen with a life time peerage for saying 'move on, nothing to see here' as a virtually full-time role
This is the kind of conduct that leads me to doubt government focus on representing the people
The opposite of the aspired to accountability, integrity, personal responsibility, and transparency
The #CovidInquiry could have worked to restore some trust in those commitments to better
No, Dorries using data protection to fact check herself is not lost on specialists watching progress of work she started to weaken all of our data protection rights
Quite a few of our ministers are finding out how handy a right to privacy might be. Along with some other useful human rights
That was from David Allen Green on Johnson WhatsApps and the #CovidInquiry. Incredibly unedifying lawandlore.substack.com/p/how-the-inte…
Did Hunt just pitch Reaganomics?
This is pitching for eroded state services to do more with less. I am appalled by the thread. His prior tenure is going to be the focus of the first part of the #CovidInquiry, staff attrition speaks for itself, along with latest labour supply figures
Please people. Tell me how this makes sense. With 18 months tops to go until a GE. All they can do is ignore issues and order cuts if I read this right. I saw the debt servicing predictions. People are going to bear the brunt again while private sector firms favoured
An improvement on indications of Lady Hallett’s thinking,but it misses central points.
Lockdowns weren’t considered in pandemic plans not just b’cs they were unthinkable but bc’s measures *less* draconian were found to be ineffective & disproportionate.
bbc.co.uk/news/health-65…
Lockdowns weren’t considered in pandemic plans not just b’cs they were unthinkable but bc’s measures *less* draconian were found to be ineffective & disproportionate.
bbc.co.uk/news/health-65…
It *is* positive that the Inquiry is finally addressing the lack of any adequate prior consideration of the exceptional harm that wld be the inevitable consequence of lockdown; let alone to weigh whether that harm was justified by the supposed efficacy of lockdown.
(I say finally because of the consummate lack of any such consideration in the terms of reference and earlier openings.)
Said every firm that cut capacity to the quick and needs to kick the audit findings can down the road
What do you do when the impact of your cost cutting is potentially at fault for reportable incidents? You start a process you can point to and say "improvements are already being planned" #CovidInquiry
Austerity is on trial along with our longest serving Health Secretary inews.co.uk/opinion/covid-…
A couple of frequent covid tweeters/activists have pointed out a few times that the government @Conservatives make sure MPs and other Whitehall, MoD and other staff are protected from infection even though the rest of us can go to hell in a plague cart.
(...)
(...)
2. Westminster Palace (and other govt buildings) are fitted with hepa or similar extraction to purify air. Here is the proof. See tweet no 4.
(...)
(...)
3.
What I wd like to find out is if the House of Commons has "listed building consent" but I cannot find it amongst the welter of both openly available and confidential "listed builiding" (planning) applications.
If anyone reading this knows the planning reference let me know.
What I wd like to find out is if the House of Commons has "listed building consent" but I cannot find it amongst the welter of both openly available and confidential "listed builiding" (planning) applications.
If anyone reading this knows the planning reference let me know.
Please read this👇🏼 Prime Minister,
@MatthiasMuell15 summarises brilliantly exactly how so many of us feel & why it is vital that you allow #BaronessHallett access to ALL the WhatsApp messages she has requested 🙏🏼.
#CovidInquiry
@RishiSunak @10DowningStreet @covidinquiryuk
1/7
@MatthiasMuell15 summarises brilliantly exactly how so many of us feel & why it is vital that you allow #BaronessHallett access to ALL the WhatsApp messages she has requested 🙏🏼.
#CovidInquiry
@RishiSunak @10DowningStreet @covidinquiryuk
1/7
We will never forget the fear that caring for patients with #COVID in DIY PPE engendered & knowing that govt decisions over PPE contracts denied 1000s of us adequate protection is particularly disturbing.
Have you really forgotten the weekly claps of 2020?
#PPEScandal #NHS💔
2/
Have you really forgotten the weekly claps of 2020?
#PPEScandal #NHS💔
2/
Our friends/colleagues & loved ones died in their 1000s from COVID, because of COVID & as a result of a very poor UK government pandemic response & countless extremely bad decisions…
#WilfulNegligence #LetTheBodiesPileHigh
@MattHancock @Jeremy_Hunt @sajidjavid @SteveBarclay
3/
#WilfulNegligence #LetTheBodiesPileHigh
@MattHancock @Jeremy_Hunt @sajidjavid @SteveBarclay
3/
@covidinquiryuk Does anyone know if this £500million pandemic contact centre paid for in 2017 was used during 2020/2022 #COVID pandemic?
Why then did we need to pay £37 billion to Dido Harding for #TestAndTrace ? !!
#CovidInquiry
#CovidCoverUp
theguardian.com/government-com…
Why then did we need to pay £37 billion to Dido Harding for #TestAndTrace ? !!
#CovidInquiry
#CovidCoverUp
theguardian.com/government-com…
@covidinquiryuk Does anyone know if £37 Billion was in fact an administrative typo?
#CovidInquiry
#CovidCoverUp
fullfact.org/health/test-an…
#CovidInquiry
#CovidCoverUp
fullfact.org/health/test-an…
@covidinquiryuk Whats full breakdown of £37B?
End Oct 2020 £478M on contact tracing.
£464 million on “contain”.
Baroness Dido Harding said “a great proportion of the money” on local tracing, Councils to decide.
David Williams said, to Nov 2021 was £5.7b
fullfact.org/health/test-tr…
End Oct 2020 £478M on contact tracing.
£464 million on “contain”.
Baroness Dido Harding said “a great proportion of the money” on local tracing, Councils to decide.
David Williams said, to Nov 2021 was £5.7b
fullfact.org/health/test-tr…
🧵1/ The UK government is seeking a judicial review over an order to release PM Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages, diaries, and notebooks to the COVID inquiry. This move raises important questions about transparency, accountability, and the use of government resources.
2/ While it's crucial to understand the decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic, it's also important to consider the impact of this ongoing saga on the functioning of the government and civil service.
3/ Mistakes were undoubtedly made during the handling of the pandemic. However, the focus should now be on learning from these mistakes and moving forward, rather than getting mired in a potentially lengthy and resource-intensive legal battle.
4pm today is the deadline for the Cabinet Office to hand over Boris Johnson’s unredacted 24 notebooks and WhatsApps to the COVID public inquiry.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
So far, the Cabinet Office has insisted that any “irrelevant” material should be redacted, in order to protect policy-forming and privacy.
The public is left wondering: "What are they trying to hide?"
The public is left wondering: "What are they trying to hide?"
Beware: the obstacle is NOT Boris Johnson, who has committed to sharing his WhatsApps and notes.
It's messages from serving ministers and officials at stake now, including, possibly, from PM Rishi Sunak.
@rowenamason has an explainer.
theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
It's messages from serving ministers and officials at stake now, including, possibly, from PM Rishi Sunak.
@rowenamason has an explainer.
theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
Simon is lamenting effects of 13 years of government failing to do what he lists. It quoted an article on millennials not voting Tory. The oldest of whom are now 40+
This was the report shared. The 'youth' not appreciating the Tory mission is a farcical proposition
Same as Goodwin lamenting indoctrinated children. Failing to credit them with ability to do research or look out of windows
You and all the think tanks first Greg. What does your latest huge Egyptian donor want in return?
How did this look into the Global Warming Policy Foundation go?
Mr Frost as a trustee there
JCVI have been against covid vaccines the whole way through. #CovidInquiry Children who are cev have lost out on so much time at school, they were locked down for so long and now they are stopping vaccines again. This decision is completely nonsensical. theguardian.com/society/2021/a…
‘Natural immunity’ which is so fleeting has led to 62,000 children with long covid thetimes.co.uk/article/childr…
1/ NEW: Shocking report reveals close links between the UK government & the pharmaceutical industry.
@amandamilling and @ranil, ministers who opposed an Intellectual Property waiver on COVID vaccines, held stakes in pharma companies.
Read more:
stopaids.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
@amandamilling and @ranil, ministers who opposed an Intellectual Property waiver on COVID vaccines, held stakes in pharma companies.
Read more:
stopaids.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
2/ Meanwhile, the supposedly independent #CovidInquiry has contracted a company that worked with the Cabinet Office during the pandemic!
With @STOPAIDS, we wrote to the Inquiry Chair Baroness Hallett to express our concerns about this disturbing connection…but got no response🤷♀️
With @STOPAIDS, we wrote to the Inquiry Chair Baroness Hallett to express our concerns about this disturbing connection…but got no response🤷♀️
3/ Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen time and again how the profits of corporations have been put above the health & interests of patients.
These decisions have cost lives - and the government must be held to account. This can only happen through a genuinely impartial process.
These decisions have cost lives - and the government must be held to account. This can only happen through a genuinely impartial process.
What an incestuous shit show
They are providing air cover for each other while the UK is now begging for honesty from #CovidInquiry
I suspect they needed something juicy to deflect from the wholesale WTH over Sunak saying the quiet part out loud about them vandalising the country
Johnson & his government don’t care about you, they didn’t even care that they were knowingly putting healthcare workers in danger. Please share this, it cannot be allowed to disappear. #JohnsonOut19
#CovidInquiry #CriminalNegligence 1/
#CovidInquiry #CriminalNegligence 1/
“Copies of the bundle of letters seen by Byline Times reveal how Osborn’s efforts to draw attention to the widespread systematic failure to protect healthcare workers fell on deaf ears across Boris Johnson’s government.” 2/
#JohnsonOut19 #CovidInquiry
#JohnsonOut19 #CovidInquiry
I have written to not #MyMP @tomHunt1988 on numerous occasions providing evidence that enhanced PPE protection was needed. They are all culpable in failing to protect those on the #Covid frontline & consequently the wider community. #JohnsonOut19 #CriminalNegligence 3/
NEW: We can reveal that 3 in 5 people in the UK want the #CovidInquiry to report before the next general election - a thread 👇
1/5
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
1/5
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
We polled 10,000 adults and the results are conclusive:
- 62% want the #CovidInquiry to report before the next general election
- only 10% say it should report after
2/5
- 62% want the #CovidInquiry to report before the next general election
- only 10% say it should report after
2/5
Support for the #CovidInquiry to report before the next general election is high among govt target voters including:
- 63% in The North of England
- 57% among people who voted Leave in the EU referendum
- 59% among over 65s
- 50% among people who voted Conservative in 2019
3/5
- 63% in The North of England
- 57% among people who voted Leave in the EU referendum
- 59% among over 65s
- 50% among people who voted Conservative in 2019
3/5
