{"id":59675,"date":"2020-10-12T12:30:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T01:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=59675"},"modified":"2020-10-12T12:21:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T01:21:52","slug":"little-englands-big-covid-19-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In late September, English schoolchildren were sent home with a letter<\/a> from Public Health England, the official body in charge of dealing with the pandemic. It warned parents not to have their kids tested for Covid-19 unless they had one of three symptoms: a fever, a continuous dry cough, or a loss of smell or taste.<\/p>\n

It was a puzzling message, given mounting evidence that the most common Covid-19 symptoms in children are in fact fatigue and headaches<\/a>\u2014and the government\u2019s own admission that up to 80% of cases<\/a> in adults (and possibly even more in children) are likely to be asymptomatic. As recently as July, the United Kingdom\u2019s health secretary, Matt Hancock, was urging citizens<\/a> to get tested \u2018if you have any doubt\u2019.<\/p>\n

But the letter spelled out the reason for the change in tack: \u2018Every time a test is used inappropriately, a person with Covid-19 symptoms may miss out on getting tested.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was a frank admission of what Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet have long sought to deny or obfuscate: the UK (and particularly England) still lacks the testing capacity needed to control the virus. With infection rates surging and lockdowns being reimposed across the country\u2014including at recently reopened universities\u2014this failure threatens to become even more costly.<\/p>\n

The letter underscores the stark failures of governance and accountability that have resulted in the UK having Europe\u2019s highest Covid-19 death rate<\/a>. Whereas many of our European neighbours\u2014notably Italy<\/a>\u2014are now performing far better in the fight against the virus, Britain more closely resembles the pandemic-stricken United States. Not only did both Johnson and US President Donald Trump contract the virus after recklessly disregarding official guidelines, but the Trump administration\u2014facing its own testing-capacity crisis\u2014also recently discouraged the public from seeking tests<\/a>, against scientific advice.<\/p>\n

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have taken different approaches to Johnson\u2019s government, often imposing tighter lockdown restrictions. Until recently, they also had lower infection rates<\/a>, although the contagion is now surging as winter approaches. But the UK\u2019s spiralling infection and death rates can best be understood as part of a tragic, and distinctly English, set of failures and delusions.<\/p>\n

For starters, England\u2019s testing and tracing service isn\u2019t being delivered by the widely cherished (public) National Health Service, which successive Conservative-led governments have chronically underfunded for a decade. Instead, a confusing thicket of private firms, including multinational consulting and accountancy giants like Deloitte<\/a>, and businesses run by Conservative Party allies<\/a> have been contracted to administer the scheme. Despite involving vast sums of taxpayer money, many of these contracts have been awarded without competitive tenders. Often, their terms remain secret\u2014breaching valid laws and guidelines\u2014and appear to include no penalties for failure. Some firms can even unilaterally rewrite their own service agreements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Such contracts are part of a decades-long trend of privatising key parts of the NHS without public consultation, due process or accountability. Back in May, openDemocracy<\/em> (the media outlet where we work) had to threaten to sue the UK government in order to obtain information about controversial NHS Covid data deals<\/a> involving big tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Palantir. When the 160 pages of contracts were finally released, they pointed to a much longer term project of quietly \u2018bedding in<\/a>\u2019 private firms.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 10 years of austerity have left public services struggling to cope. Since Public Health England\u2019s founding in 2012, its budget has been cut by 40% in real terms<\/a>. Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 has hit the most deprived parts of the country hardest and has disproportionately affected black and minority ethnic communities across the UK.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s pandemic failings\u2014and England\u2019s in particular\u2014are also distinctly political. It was England that voted heavily for Brexit (Scotland, by contrast, voted to remain in the European Union by a 62% to 38% margin). And it was the English electorate that gave Johnson his \u2018stonking mandate<\/a>\u2019 in the December 2019 general election. At war with the EU over the terms of its exit, the government didn\u2019t place a high priority on coordination with the bloc on Covid procurement<\/a> or other matters. Johnson has regularly talked up the UK\u2019s \u2018world-beating\u2019 pandemic response, but all evidence points to the contrary. British exceptionalism, widely championed by Brexiteers, is proving fatal.<\/p>\n

Worse, those who question the government\u2019s upbeat narrative have been derided as unpatriotic or attacked for having a political agenda. James Cusick, openDemocracy<\/em>\u2019s Westminster correspondent, was banned from asking questions at Downing Street Covid-19 press briefings after his reporting emphasised concerns among doctors<\/a> about the safety of critically ill children, revealed hospital logs<\/a> supporting those fears, and highlighted the costly negligence battles<\/a> the government is preparing to fight over the pandemic-related deaths of NHS workers. Reporters Without Borders condemned this and other similar incidents<\/a> as \u2018Trumpian\u2019 attacks on press freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

True, during the first months of 2020, governments and health authorities around the world were scrambling to respond to an unprecedented situation. But six months later, the British government is actively trying to dissuade parents from getting their children tested for a virus that has already killed nearly 50,000 people in the UK. Moreover, there are worrying signs that England still has insufficient stocks of flu vaccine<\/a>, despite a huge public-messaging campaign urging Britons to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n

In April, a massive tent was temporarily erected in a park near an east London school, just out of sight of the children. It was a makeshift morgue. Johnson and his ministers have continually sought to shift the blame for the Covid-19 crisis, not least onto young people<\/a>. But if such tents reappear, they will have no one to blame but themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late September, English schoolchildren were sent home with a letter from Public Health England, the official body in charge of dealing with the pandemic. It warned parents not to have their kids tested for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1232,"featured_media":59679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2578,2658,983,141],"class_list":["post-59675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-boris-johnson","tag-coronavirus","tag-pandemic","tag-united-kingdom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLittle England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In late September, English schoolchildren were sent home with a letter from Public Health England, the official body in charge of dealing with the pandemic. It warned parents not to have their kids tested for ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T01:30:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T01:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Fitzgerald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Fitzgerald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during a visit to the Jenner Institute in Oxford, central England, on September 18, 2020, where the Prime Minister toured the laboratory and met scientists who are leading the covid-19 vaccine research. - Millions more people in northern and central England faced new restrictions over a surge in coronavirus cases, the British government announced on Friday, as it warned another national lockdown could be imminent. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth \/ POOL \/ AFP) (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/\",\"name\":\"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-12T01:30:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-12T01:21:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e28d16afad3310209c1e6ce76af53d28\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e28d16afad3310209c1e6ce76af53d28\",\"name\":\"Mary Fitzgerald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e98a63a5264907f778a3117bee85db58?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e98a63a5264907f778a3117bee85db58?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mary Fitzgerald\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/mary-fitzgerald\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist","og_description":"In late September, English schoolchildren were sent home with a letter from Public Health England, the official body in charge of dealing with the pandemic. It warned parents not to have their kids tested for ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2020-10-12T01:30:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-12T01:21:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mary Fitzgerald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mary Fitzgerald","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/GettyImages-1228576797.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during a visit to the Jenner Institute in Oxford, central England, on September 18, 2020, where the Prime Minister toured the laboratory and met scientists who are leading the covid-19 vaccine research. - Millions more people in northern and central England faced new restrictions over a surge in coronavirus cases, the British government announced on Friday, as it warned another national lockdown could be imminent. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth \/ POOL \/ AFP) (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/","name":"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2020-10-12T01:30:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-12T01:21:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e28d16afad3310209c1e6ce76af53d28"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/little-englands-big-covid-19-problem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Little England\u2019s big Covid-19 problem"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e28d16afad3310209c1e6ce76af53d28","name":"Mary Fitzgerald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e98a63a5264907f778a3117bee85db58?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e98a63a5264907f778a3117bee85db58?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mary Fitzgerald"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/mary-fitzgerald\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59675"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59680,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59675\/revisions\/59680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}