Matt Hancock….

He said only 1.6 percent of cases in care homes came from hospitals.

But of course only a microscopic number of people sent back into care homes were tested!
Anyone can see this is rubbish and doctors are calling in to the radio to explain why this isn't true.

What annoys me when they say the delta variant is 40% more transmissible is that it comes on top of the Kent variant which means the virus is now @ 100% more transmissible than it was last year.

Evidence such as this

Michael Rosen

On my intensive care ward, there was second hand PPE turning up, some with blood on. If there was an enquiry going on now, we'd hear of this, instead of Hancock's licence to talk like this.

Can he be charged with perjury for lying to a select committee?

lemongrove

He said that if Dominic Cummings had any evidence about him then he would have produced it by now.

Probably Cummings has no hard evidence, but if he did the smart thing to do would be to produce it after Hancock's performance today, not before.

Just read online ( unverified!) that the delta variant is 60% more transmissible Maybee ?

In that case Petera there isn’t long to wait and see if if does have any or it was all hot air.

Still at least Hancock can claim that he has defeated the Kent variant

Whitewavemark2

Evidence such as this

Michael Rosen

On my intensive care ward, there was second hand PPE turning up, some with blood on. If there was an enquiry going on now, we'd hear of this, instead of Hancock's licence to talk like this.

My phlebotomist friend had to wear the same mask all day at the start of the pandemic.

lemongrove

Just read online ( unverified!) that the delta variant is 60% more transmissible Maybee ?

And all because Johnson was desperate for a trade deal with India. I know the variant would eventually have got here but it could have been contained until more people had been vaccinated.

I doubt that Maybee as once a variant is here then it’s here and spreads.
Probably spread by younger people who wouldn’t be getting jabs yet in any case.

lemongrove

I doubt that Maybee as once a variant is here then it’s here and spreads.
Probably spread by younger people who wouldn’t be getting jabs yet in any case.

I don't follow this. If vaccinations slow the spread of a variant, then surely the longer they are delayed the better, so that more people can be spared - including the young? If they don't slow transmission, what is the relevance of the fact that young people are further down the queue for vaccination?

I might be slow of thinking, though - I have a pressure headache today ?

Doodledog

lemongrove

I doubt that Maybee as once a variant is here then it’s here and spreads.
Probably spread by younger people who wouldn’t be getting jabs yet in any case.

I don't follow this. If vaccinations slow the spread of a variant, then surely the longer they are delayed the better, so that more people can be spared - including the young? If they don't slow transmission, what is the relevance of the fact that young people are further down the queue for vaccination?

I might be slow of thinking, though - I have a pressure headache today ?

No your logic is entirely correct. What maybe said is right.

Yes, we all know about the lack of PPE. What many seem to forget is the whole world had a problem obtaining PPE.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7314445/

No, it isn’t actually ?
Even if flights back from India had been stopped weeks before, the variant was already here, brought back and spread especially in the Asian community.As many Asian people do not want ( or rather fear) having the vaccine, then they were an instant target for Covid, probably spread by younger people from household to household.Then it was quickly in the wider community from schools and Colleges perhaps.
The vaccination programme was going as fast as possible, so nothing wrong there, but impossible to contain until just about everybody has now had two jabs.Variants in other places have proved to be the same.
I also think that flights from India and elsewhere should have been stopped earlier, but that wouldn’t have helped much and it would have been a very unpopular decision to leave UK residents stuck in India.

Talullah

Yes, we all know about the lack of PPE. What many seem to forget is the whole world had a problem obtaining PPE.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7314445/

So why does he feel the need to lie about it when there's a perfectly good reason?

I agree Talullha the world was scrambling for PPE at that time.
If anything can be learned by an inquiry then good-o, but when so many PPE were needed by all the NHS in every hospital and clinic, then it’s not surprising there was an initial shortage.
PPE cannot be stored and then used after 30/50/100 years or whenever a pandemic happens.

Yes Maybee is correct lemongrove. Despite warnings our Government didn’t act quickly enough to close the borders, resulting in a huge rush of people back from India, who weren’t hotel quarantined. That didn’t happen in other countries, who stopped travel sooner and hotel quarantined, and is the reason why the variant has taken off so quickly here. It was already here in small isolated pockets, but the rise was dramatically hastened. You only have to look to Europe to see the difference in numbers.

You only had to see the rate of infection rate in India to realise that India should have been red-listed like it’s neighbouring countries. One has to question the reasoning behind that especially as some Indian dignatories were invited here unnecessarily and they even had the virus.

I shall agree to disagree with you about the delta variant.

Operation Cygnus in 2016 - uk preparation for pretend influenza pandemic showed not enough PPE in storage then! Found info on www.gov.uk site and also referenced in Hansard. Surely a “world beating” country such as ours should have actioned this. I believe it was during Hunts time. Sorry can’t add specific references.

Talullah

Yes, we all know about the lack of PPE. What many seem to forget is the whole world had a problem obtaining PPE.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7314445/

There were PPE suppliers in UK trying to contact the govt, who could not get through or get their calls returned. They ended up exporting to USA.

There were PPE contracts given to companies who supplied substandard PPE, which had to be thrown away.

Hancock states that no health worker has died due to lack of PPE

Can we just follow the logic of that statement?

Option 1: There was no lack of PPE. Even people supporting Hancock in this thread are posting the opposite saying there was a global lack of PPE.

Option2: There was a lack of PPE but no health worker died because of this. Are our health services stupidly wasting money on PPE when it’s unnecessary? Or does it only prevent transfer of infection in a vanishingly small number of cases? And, if that’s the case, how does Hancock know that no health worker has died due to lack of PPE?

Option 3: He’s lying

I think his pants are actually on fire Petera and there is absolutely no way he could sit on the telephone wire

Hospitals said at the time ( including my own DIL...as a nurse)
That there was PPE but not so much that they could constantly throw them away and apply new. However she also said that some workers constantly touched and took off and fiddled with masks and didn’t always use the hand gel in and out of wards.
It would be impossible to say that any health workers who contracted Covid did so at work or from home life.
Even if not used properly in hospitals there were more precautions taken in hospitals than when nurses were at home and out and about.