[ad_1]
The government has published a lengthy rebuttal to a damning newspaper article claiming that the UK “lost five crucial weeks” in dealing with the threat posed by the coronavirus.
In an unusual move, the Health Department selected the allegations made in The Sunday Times one by one, describing elements of its investigation as “clearly false” and “ridiculous.”
The article had claimed that Boris Johnson missed five key COBRA meetings as the COVID-19 crisis accelerated, with whistleblowers and government scientists alleging there was complacency at the heart of the government in late January and February.
These claims have been fiercely rejected, with Downing Street insisting that the UK “was taking action and working to improve its readiness since early January.”
Authorities said it is “completely normal and appropriate” for COBRA meetings to be chaired by someone other than the prime minister, rather than being “unusual” as suggested by The Sunday Times.
And allegations that No. 10 displayed an “almost indifferent attitude” toward the coronavirus were dismissed as “incorrect.”
The government also questioned an excerpt from the newspaper report that “the virus had infiltrated our airports, our trains, our workplaces, and our homes” when Johnson chaired a COBRA meeting on March 2.
“This virus has affected countries around the world,” said the Department of Health. “It is ridiculous to suggest that the coronavirus only came to the UK because the health secretary and not the prime minister chaired a COBRA meeting.”
In another part of the rebuttal, which has more than 2,000 words, the government defended the shipment of 279,000 items of personal protective equipment to China.
“The team was not from the pandemic reserve,” he said. “We provide this equipment to meet your needs and since then China has reciprocated our donation many times.”
“Between April 2 and April 15, we received over 12 million pieces of PPE in the UK from China.”
:: Listen to Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
And the Health Department also dismissed the newspaper’s claim that the lessons were not learned from a pandemic trial in 2016, which it said had been “extremely proactive” in implementing the recommendations.
The emphatic denials came hours after Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said it was “grotesque” to suggest that the prime minister had skipped meetings “that were vital to our response to the coronavirus.”
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I think anyone who has considered what happened to the prime minister not so long ago, no one can say that the prime minister is not throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus.”
Despite Gove’s dismissal of the Sunday Times report, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the investigation “suggests he was originally missing in action.”
He told Ridge: “There are serious questions as to why the Prime Minister skipped five COBRA meetings during February, when everyone could see how serious this was getting.”
“And we know that serious mistakes have been made, we know that our front-line NHS personnel do not have the PPE, that they have been told this weekend that they will not necessarily have the dresses that are vital to keep them safe.” We know that our testing capacity is not at the level that is needed.
“We know that the fans that many hospitals have received are the wrong types of fans, and there are big questions about whether we go into this shutdown too slowly, and now we hear that the Prime Minister missed five meetings at the start of this outbreak.” “
