Prospect of Biological and Nuclear Terrorism in Central Asia and Russia. Musa Khan Jalalzai
stealth, and contrary to law, has washed up on our shores. And all under the deaf, dumb and blind monkeys of the Fourth Estate. Such is the credibility of the British government that, when news began circulating that the prime minister’s health had sharply deteriorated and he had been taken to hospital and was in intensive care, a government spokesman diverted to blame “Russian disinformation.” The news hounds now known as stenographers duly wrote this down and published it. Only a few hours later the government was forced to concede how bad the PM’s condition was, and even if he was not put on a ventilator as the sources cited by the Russians said, never before had “Russian disinformation” claims aged so poorly, so quickly”.
On 21 April 2020, the Russian Television new reported: “UK healthcare workers were given flawed Covid-19 tests, a government minister has admitted, meaning frontline staff may have returned to work carrying the deadly virus. Junior health minister Helen Whately told Sky News on Wednesday that NHS staff have been informed that their coronavirus tests were “not up to scratch” and results may not be accurate. They have now been offered a new test. At least 100 frontline health workers have died from Covid-19, according to the most recent figures. Defending the serious error, Whately claimed it was all part of a “normal process when you are using a test for an illness.” My understanding from the clinical advisers is some of the early tests were evaluated and the evaluation was actually they weren’t effective enough. It comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock – who has promised 100,000 tests by the end of April – recently claimed that “no test is better than a bad test.” Editor of open Media James Cusick reported that a leaked Public Health England (PHE) document seen by open Democracy warned that the flawed tests had failed to detect up to 25 percent of positive Covid-19 results. It’s the latest controversy to hit the UK government, which has been accused of badly mishandling the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, reports of a severe lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health and social care workers has dogged the health secretary”.
Moreover, on 22 April 2020, the RT news and British newspaper reported opposition parties call for an official inquiry into Johnson and his cabinet members’ criminal negligence. Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey, called for an official inquiry to be launched into the prime minister’s handling of the coronavirus response. “Once we are through this crisis, there will of course need to be an independent inquiry to officially review the government’s response to the pandemic, so we can learn the lessons,” Liberal Democrats acting leader Ed Davey said. In Davey’s estimation, the inquiry must be granted “the strongest possible powers” given the Tory governments “shocking failures on protective equipment for staff and the slow response of government.”
The UK currently has 130,184 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection with a death toll that has risen to over 17,300. The country’s National Healthcare Service, which had been gutted for years prior to the current pandemic, was woefully under prepared to handle the onslaught of ICU patients, among them Boris Johnson himself. At least 100 frontline health workers have died from Covid-19, according to the most recent figures. Before he became prime minister, Johnson was accused of being too casual and not having a grip on detail, particularly when he was foreign secretary. The concept of herd immunity was first raised publicly by Vallance on 13 March with a comment that it could be an “important part of controlling [coronavirus] longer term”. His remark sparked alarm among the public as the UK continued to allow mass gatherings, while European neighbours were banning sports fixtures and closing schools.
On 21 April 2020, the Guardian newspaper reported serious questions faced by the government about its competence in every phase of the coronavirus crisis, concentrates its focus on that immediate challenge: this isn’t the right time to launch an inquiry, ministers say, this is the time to come together. In bizarre, sixth-form language, they pour scorn on media scrutiny. Probably in some corner of a bygone world, that strategy still works. Yet questions over their capability are not the only challenge they face. More seriously, the virus threatens to upend the conservative world view. All these projects were undertaken at a time of epic national debt and genuine fiscal insecurity. The message was not so much “money is no object” as “money has no meaning”. Perhaps the NHS has emerged as the most important because it was the one that lasted, or perhaps it lasted because it was the most important. Either way, a principle was established: socialism in health, if nowhere else.
However, on 22 April 2020, labour leader Starmer grilled Dominic Raab over care home deaths in first virtual PMQs, Labour leader attacks government on testing failures as minister is unable to say how many care home staff died. Dominic Raab and Keir Starmer were in the chamber in person but many MPs asked questions via video-link. Dominic Raab has admitted the government does not know how many care home staff died from Covid-19 in the first virtual prime minister’s questions. The first secretary of state, who is deputising for Boris Johnson while the prime minister recovers from the virus, was quizzed by Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, who accused the government of being far slower than other EU countries on testing and said its personal protective equipment strategy was not working.
Asked how many NHS and care staff had died from the virus, Raab said: “On the latest figures my understanding is 69 people have died within the NHS of coronavirus and I don’t have the precise figure for care homes – they are more difficult establish in relation to care home workers as opposed to care home residents. On 22 April 2020, the Guardian reported fire fighter were tackling patients in hospitals. “Seeing how families are being torn apart is really distressing and sad,” says Bill Pitt. “As firefighters, we want to be out there and to be reassuring.” Without a professional plan care homes deaths increased.
On 22 April 2020 in his “Good Morning Britain” programme, Piers Morgan slammed Care Minister Helen Whately for failing to know how many health workers have died due to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK. Ms Whately appeared on the show and was criticised for laughing as Piers confronted her over the number of people that were reported to have died in care homes. The interview this morning continued to heat up as Piers grilled the minister on the figures that are currently being published by the government. Speaking on Good Morning Britain from her home in Kent, Ms Whately said the government was currently changing the way it collects data, before admitting that ‘more people than usual’ were dying in care homes. Speaking to Good Morning Britain from her home Helen Whately said; ‘The situation with data we have is that it includes some people who have died in hospitals and it would be misleading. ‘We are changing the way we collect the data so we are able to publish specific figures’. ‘We know 61 NHS workers have very sadly died and we have a figure at the moment of 15 care workers that have died.’ Piers showed a graphic of the people who worked in the NHS and across the care home sector which stated that it was in fact 111 people who have died from the virus. Piers said 11,000 people had died in care homes and that the FT had completely different numbers to the government minister.
Journalist and analysit, Zachary Basu argued that the Johnson government’s criminal negligence caused embarrassment to the country in international community, and noted some wrong steps of his administration in tackling COVID-19: “A 5,000-word exposé by the Sunday Times of London—38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster”—finds that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, distracted by personal turmoil and his Brexit victory lap, skipped five early crisis briefings (Cobra meetings) on the coronavirus. Why it matters: Warnings issued in January and repeated in February fell on “deaf ears,” according to the Sunday Times, with the lost time potentially costing thousands of British lives. The big picture: The U.K. government held its first Cobra meeting on Jan. 24, sensing the looming threat as the virus had spread from China to at least six known countries. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told reporters that the risk to the British public was “low,” while a spokesperson for Johnson—who skipped the Cobra meeting — said the U.K. was “well prepared for any new diseases.” Johnson went on to skip four more Cobra meetings, distracted by mass flooding, the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union, a Cabinet shakeup and a countryside holiday with his fiancée, before finally attending one on 02 March 2020.
On 19 April 2020, Richard North noted some aspects of the failure of Boris Johnson’s strategies to control COVID-19: “In many ways, this points up the divide between the way I tend to work, employing inductive reasoning on the basis of documentary evidence, and media reporters who rely extensively