This is the exact problem with our government's thinking & response- despite this strategy of 'tolerating deaths' and half-way measures having spectacularly failed, it's quite amazing that our govt still hasn't learned anything, & continues to promote a policy of death. Thread

Had we adopted an elimination strategy early on, rather than one of tolerating a certain level of infection, we wouldn't be here now. The reason we're here is because the govt never committed to elimination.
We eased lockdown in May when infection levels were much higher than when other countries in Europe did this. The govt was warned about this, but did this to 'help the economy'. Not only did this lead us into the 2nd wave, the need for further lockdowns harmed the economy further
It's very clear from global evidence that we cannot 'tolerate a level of community transmission' and maintain 'R at or just below 1', which has been our governments policy for a long time. This isn't sustainable & very rapidly gets out of control, leading to exponential rises
Coupled with late action to contain these surges, not only does this lead to many more deaths, and much more morbidity with Long COVID, it also creates a fertile ground for viral mutations to accumulate with a greater risk of adaptation, which is exactly what happened in the UK
And Esther McVey's tweet about 200,000 deaths from lockdown. This is absolutely false. We have >80,000 excess deaths in the UK, and it's very clear that the vast majority of these are clearly due to COVID-19.

https://t.co/VPqJBbkFik
So the idea that there are a huge number of indirect deaths from lockdowns (and these exceed the deaths from COVID-19) is absolutely false, and it's disappointing to see the govt actively spreading false information, and misinforming the public in the midst of a pandemic.
In fact, what is very clear is that the late action and half-way strategy of govt has left to a very high death toll from COVID-19. The UK has one of the highest mortality rates in the world - 1100/million compared with 0.29/million in Taiwan.
UK policy for COVID-19 has been an utter failure. The fact that the govt is still talking about 'tolerating deaths' is terrifying. When does the govt acknowledge that this isn't working & change course. This destructive ideology has led us here & will cost many more lives.
The new variant & its rapid spread further emphasises the huge risks of this approach. It's clear that the only way forward now is elimination. A policy of half-way measures does not work - and is destructive to our society & our economy. The evidence is clear. Please stop this.
And if you truly want to prevent indirect deaths due to the NHS being overwhelmed, the best way to prevent these is also *control COVID-19*. It should be obvious that an NHS service overwhelmed with COVID cannot provide routine care.
If you're concerned about the NHS, invest in it rather than cutting funding, and enacting policies that have led to huge NHS shortages. If you care about mental health of communities, invest in this. Cuts in mental health services predate COVID-19 & have caused a lot of harm.
If you're worried about the impact of lockdowns, *prevent* these by following an elimination strategy, and basing policies on scientific evidence - which does not support the govts current policies. If you care about impact of lockdown on communities, support them.
Spreading disinformation should violate the ministerial code. We're at a point where MPs in govt are actively spreading disinformation in the midst of a pandemic.

The govt has completely failed us & their continued pursuit of pseudoscience will cost many more lives.
Talking about 'tolerating deaths' at a point where vaccines are available is even more irresponsible. Every single death from COVID-19 is preventable- had the govt thinking reflected this, we would be at a very different point now.

More from Deepti Gurdasani

We've been falsely told 'schools are safe', 'don't drive community transmission', & teachers don't have a higher risk of infection repeatedly by govt & their advisors- to justify some of the most negligent policies in history. 🧵


data shows *both* primary & secondary school teachers are at double the risk of confirmed infection relative to comparable positivity in the general population. ONS household infection data also clearly show that children are important sources of transmission.

Yet, in the parliamentary select meeting today, witnesses like Jenny Harries repeated the same claims- that have been debunked by the ONS data, and the data released by the @educationgovuk today. How many lives have been lost to these lies? How many more people have long COVID?

has repeatedly pointed out errors & gaps in the ONS reporting of evidence around risk of infection among teachers- and it's taken *months* to get clarity on this. The released data are a result of months of campaigning by her, the @NEU and others.

Rather than being transparent about the risk of transmission in school settings & mitigating this, the govt (& many of its advisors) has engaged in dismissing & denying evidence that's been clear for a while. Evidence from the govt's own surveys. And global evidence.

Why?

More from Government

Abbott is pushing a lie to protect incompetence. There is no Federal oversight of the Texas Grid, ergo fewer regulations (sound familiar) - so point one: state legislature needs reform. 2/


2. Point 2: there were clear signs the grid would get overloaded under extreme cold conditions. Why? Due to a vacuum of regulations mandating winterization of turbines and power generators. This from sources, in Texas!

3. Point 3: Of the power shortfall that hit Texas, over 80% was due to problems at coal and gas fired plants. Power generators were just not winterized. Decisions to do so have been ignored since the 1990s.

4. Point 4: these are winterized wind turbines in Denmark. The ocean is frozen. The turbines are generating.


5. #Texas| the main issue is: catastrophic governance at the State level (no Federal oversight of the Texas grid) failing to allocate funding to winterise the Natural Gas, Coal and Wind Turbine elements that contribute to the grid. (~ 80/20

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