The government was told by the World Health Organisation that they needed to “test, test, test” some 6 months ago, but instead, they scrapped community test and trace and spent the next few months twisting, manipulating and blatantly falsifying the test figures to the point of where they couldn’t even understand the data themselves.
Matt Hancock made a solemn promise that we would be carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of May, but, as the end of May approached he suddenly changed the pledge. Instead of “carrying out” 100,000 tests every day, the wording was brazenly changed to “having the capacity” to carry out 100,000 tests a day.
Hancock wasn’t alone in making bold testing predictions. Johnson himself committed to 200,000 tests a day, which was immediately downgraded from carried-out tests to having the capacity to do a test.
The government realised they could just throw a huge number in the air, the media would say “wow” - and the ever-subservient opposition would just nod along like one of those tacky Churchill dogs you see in the back of people’s cars.
Remember, “now is not the time” to ask difficult questions of the government.
So we skip forward from those dreadful months to today, and yet another Tory testing miracle is on the horizon.
Leaked internal government correspondence has revealed the test-failing Tories are prepared to almost match what it spends on the NHS in England each year to fund mass testing of the population “to support economic activity and a return to normal life”. They’re calling it ‘Operation Moonshot’.
The plan would see us have the capacity to test the entire population, every single week. That’s 10 million tests, every single day, at a cost of an eye-watering £100 billion.
Under the plan the government will roll out testing in workplaces, entertainment venues, and football stadiums and at GP surgeries, pharmacies, schools, and other local sites to improve access. It will also roll out digital immunity passports to allow people who test negative to return to workplaces, travel, and participate in other activities.
But can you honestly trust the government to deliver on this? You could load a pizza onto the back of Matt Hancock’s moped, put the delivery address into his satnav, and he would still end up delivering half of the pizza to the wrong address.
Then you need to look at the names involved in this latest scheme. Deloitte, G4S, Serco, and all of the usual Tory favourites. They’ve all been told to expect a huge slice of the pie, and while this is great news for their shareholders, it means further expensive failure for the people of this country. Serco, in particular, have absolutely rinsed the public purse during the Coronavirus crisis.
Critics have already described the plans as “devoid of any contribution from scientists, clinicians, and public health and testing and screening experts,” and “disregarding the enormous problems with the existing testing and tracing programmes.”
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said they bore the hallmark of a government “whose ambition far exceeds its ability to deliver.”
Professor McKee went on to say,
“This plan transmits unbounded optimism, disregarding the enormous problems with the existing testing and tracing programmes. Worse, it envisages a major role for Deloitte, a company that has presided over many of these problems.
“It focuses on only one part of the problem, testing, and says nothing about what will happen to those found positive, a particular concern given the low proportion of those who do adhere to advice to isolate—in part because of the lack of support they are offered. What parliamentary scrutiny will there be of a programme that would cost almost as much as the annual budget for the NHS [in England]? However, on the basis of what is presented here, this looks less like Apollo 11, which took Neill Armstrong to the moon successfully, and more like Apollo 13.”
Professor McKee wasn’t alone in voicing his concerns. Devi Sridha is professor and chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Sridha said,
“The government needs to deliver this programme at scale, but I’m concerned about the reliance on the private sector to deliver this. The evidence so far is that involving local NHS capacity is more effective than outsourcing. There is a case for giving the extra billions to the NHS and asking it to deliver. I have concerns around the bidding process for these contracts. The procurement process isn’t clear, and it allows for a lot of people getting rich off this crisis. This is public money that we are going to have to pay back at some point.”
That’s pretty damning stuff. But when scrutiny is so minimal, you’ll get away with it.
Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham and leader of the Cochrane Collaboration’s covid-19 test evaluation activities, was concerned about a seeming lack of involvement of experts in the plans. He said,
“The document lacks insight into how screening works, particularly the need to balance the harms you can create through false positives against the benefits from true positives.
“The projected benefits are based on optimistic scenarios as to how well these tests would work, when they would be available to be used, and how easily they could be deployed. I’m horrified that the plans are devoid of any contribution from scientists, clinicians, and public health and testing and screening experts. These are plans from the world of management consultants and show complete ignorance of many essential basic principles of testing, public health, and screening. The authors appear totally oblivious to the harms that universal screening can create—this is frankly dangerous.”
Ministers have faced increasing pressure in recent days over availability of tests, with many people reporting being sent hundreds of miles from home to get checked for the deadly virus.
Let’s look at some examples of the utter shambles that’s happening out there at the moment.
David Llewellyn tried to book a test on Sunday and was directed to a test centre near Blackburn - 250 miles and the other side of England from his home in Stowmarket, Suffolk.
"I thought I'd entered my home location incorrectly so went through the booking process again, only to get the same location for testing. Needless to say I have subsequently ordered a home testing kit, which despite three automated email reminders to take the test has yet to arrive. I'd do the test if I had it. I think it's ridiculous."
Lucy Evans lives in Poole on the south coast. She was offered a test 220 miles away in Oldham and Blackburn. She tried again and was offered the Isle of Wight.
"I tried 14 times to get a test nearer and in the end had to get a home test as I ran out of time to get this done within five days. By the time I was tested my symptoms had disappeared."
Lucy tested negative for Covid on Tuesday.
Lisa lives in Plymouth and tried to get a test for her 14-year-old son. She was offered a test 688 miles away in Inverness.
"People aren't going to travel all that way for a test are they? You'd just have to make stops along the way and could be spreading it around if you had the virus."
She eventually got a test locally and her son was negative.
I know of someone local to me that was sent to Wales, 82 miles away, to get a test done. How would this work if they didn’t have the transportation to get them to Newport? It’s a shambles, be in no doubt.
Be honest with yourself here. Does this look like the ideal foundations to build up to achieving 10 million Covid tests, every single day? Of course not.
Just to add to ridiculousness of it all, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was sent out to do the media rounds earlier today, and he claims he doesn’t even recognise the £100 billion figure being touted. Grant, mate, it’s in your own leaked document.
If Operation Moonshot does go ahead, the private sector will pick up unprecedented rewards, regardless of whether the scheme is a success or not.
The government and their media keep using the phrase “NHS test and trace system”, but this is demonstrably untrue. NHS Test and Trace is an outsourced service provided to the National Health Service in England, established in May 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. It is part of the National Institute for Health Protection; the service and the institute are both headed by Baroness Dido Harding.
This project, like a majority of the Tories get-richer-quick projects, is unlikely to serve the people first. Wealth will always come before health. Serco will always pocket vast sums of public money. The government will always throw out ambitious but unachievable numbers, because the sheep need to be told the government is rounding them up for a purpose.
This is a private venture, and private companies have to make a profit. They won’t be testing you to put your mind at rest, they’ll be testing you because there’s a £100 billion pie, and they want a big slice of it.
This is a government of failure. A government of cronyism. A government of blatant corruption.
While the private sector may well be rubbing its hands with glee this morning, the public shouldn’t suddenly think we have all of the solutions to the problems. We don’t, this is a £100 billion problem, and in the hands of this grotesquely negligent government, I have absolutely no faith in them delivering on their pledges. And neither should you.
Until next time.
Rachael
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