Responding on January 23 to mounting fears about the remorseless advance across the globe of coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock delivered a statement to the Commons.
Even though deaths were inexorably rising in China, where the incurable killer originated, no cases had – yet – been discovered in Britain.
Nevertheless, Mr Hancock sought to reassure MPs (and members of the public who tuned in). Britain, he said, was ‘well prepared and well equipped’ to tackle any contagion. Indeed, he boasted, we had developed a ‘world-leading’ test for Covid-19.
How hollow those words ring now!
For, two months on, the picture is unremittingly grim. Stony-faced officials yesterday revealed the sombre drumbeat of death had risen by 563 – to a horrific 2,352.
The Prime Minister, the Mail believes, deserves two cheers for the way he has dealt with the most severe peril since the Nazis. But it stretches credulity to relentlessly parrot, as ministers have, that Britain was one of the best-prepared countries to deal with the coronavirus
The vertiginous death toll is cast-iron proof that Boris Johnson was right to lock down Britain.
The Prime Minister, the Mail believes, deserves two cheers for the way he has dealt with the most severe peril since the Nazis.
But it stretches credulity to relentlessly parrot, as ministers have, that Britain was one of the best-prepared countries to deal with the coronavirus.
The evidence from the NHS front line is the opposite.
The lack of protective equipment for heroic doctors and nurses battling the virus and the woeful shortage of life-saving ventilators for stricken patients are obvious examples.
But undoubtedly the most glaring failure is the testing fiasco.
So far, a lamentable 153,000 people have been checked since the epidemic struck. Initially, we did test every single suspected victim. That helped identify who had the virus, and all their contacts were traced.
But the Government abandoned that strategy.
Boris must – urgently – appoint a dedicated minister for testing, with a free hand to do whatever works. The time for complacency is over
Increasingly, there’s a clamour for all NHS staff to be tested. The proportion screened? Less than 1 per cent. One trust can check only three medics a day – scandalously few. Yet many are in quarantine with the suspected illness – even if not infectious.
If there is a shortage of testing kits, why are UK firms selling huge quantities to the Earth’s four corners?
Plainly, the buck stops with Mr Johnson, who is in grave danger of letting control of the crisis slip from his grasp. Last night, stung by the Mail’s campaign, he pledged urgent measures to crack the controversy. Words are welcome. But action is imperative.
Nor can the health establishment escape culpability.
Public Health England is a corpulent quango staffed by legions of appallingly overpaid panjandrums who spend their entire time lecturing us about alcohol, sugar and eating more vegetables.
But when it comes to confronting a pandemic, it is asleep at the wheel. Enslaved by ideology, it genuflects to a ‘private healthcare bad, public healthcare good’ mantra.
Mass testing is critical to the Government rolling back the lockdown. Each week this purgatory goes on, the more damaging the toll on firms, jobs, mental health, our children’s education and the ability of the country to pay for the NHS.
Boris must – urgently – appoint a dedicated minister for testing, with a free hand to do whatever works. The time for complacency is over.
On the day Mr Hancock made his coronavirus statement to MPs, the Mail wrote that it sincerely hoped the Government wasn’t slamming the stable doors shut after the horse had bolted.
If the Prime Minister doesn’t act quickly on his promises, we will regretfully conclude that it has.