Former Secretary of Health said the government may have wasted valuable time at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, assuming that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not be stopped.
Jeremy Hunt said: “I was very confused by the fact that all public messages we received from governments and government scientists were about pandemics that would necessarily affect 50% to 60% of the population.”
Hunt, now chairman of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, said it’s very unfair to say they’re adopting a herd’s immunity policy, “they are this population.” ..
Jeremy Hunt
Asian experience
Speak in In conversation At an event held Wednesday with Professor Simon Wessery of the Royal Society of Medicine, Britain “turns around what less than 1% of the population was infected before actually being infected” in Wuhan and other parts of China.
Hunt, a Chinese wife, said, “The biggest reason we didn’t fully consider what’s happening in Asia is probably the fact that China is not democracy and does not share democratic values. There was a feeling that it was very difficult.”
He said that “ignorance” about Asia was not “because Asians are just obedient” in some of the lockdown and social distance measures that were applied there, but “Korea and Taiwan were incredible in these. One term that I know is a solid democracy and I never use when talking about Korean is the word “obedience”.
British government delays ordering 23 blockadesrd March was “I can’t be too early because I was thinking of accepting it for a very limited period of time” to avoid the risk of public fatigue.
“It wasn’t that people noticed that they would block themselves until we saw it happening in Italy (a member of Europe and a member of democracy). was.”
In 2016, Britain hosted a panoramic test drill that swept the country. However, Operation Cygnus, which was carried out while Mr. Hunt was serving as Secretary of Health, did not occur. influenza, Despite the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) last year, and Severe acute respiratory syndrome 2003 (according to SARS, SARS-CoV-1).
“Still, I was doing my best to respond to the flu,” Hunt said.
He continued: “I think the big thing we need to think about is how to tackle the “group sync”. It’s not influenza and SARS, basically because Western countries experienced flu rather than SARS. “
But he said it was important not to rush to politicians and scientists planning a response to the January pandemic. This included plans to protect the NHS, resulting in the transfer of untested patients to the social care system.
“At that time, if you remember, Lord Patrick Valence [the Government’s chief scientific adviser], We said it was four weeks behind Italy in the progression of the disease. In reality, I think it’s a couple of weeks behind Italy.
“That’s what people worried about, so it’s absolutely right that we do everything we can to empty the hospital and create capacity.”
However, as a result, the hospital discharged asymptomatic patients to the care facility without testing. “Compare with countries like Germany, where there are rules that do not allow patients to be admitted from hospitals if they cannot be quarantined in a care facility for two weeks.”
Mr Hunt said he did not want to point out the flaws. He praised Lord Patrick and his government’s chief health adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, for his “good” advice.
“I think what we have to do is look at the system we have, and politicians and scientists were politicians who were in office and responsible for the preparation before this happened. I think we must share responsibility for our response, including.
It should be “more transparent in scientific advice”.
Social care reform
Hunt said: “The lesson is that one of the things that has to come from this horrific crisis is the long-term solution of the social care system.
“I was fighting very hard when I was claiming a £20 billion increase in my NHS budget. I have to do the same for the social care sector. 10 year plan, long term I had to plan for it. I funded the settlement, but I was told I needed to come later. First I would do the NHS and then the social care system.”
“I then moved to a foreign office. But that was two years ago. We have to do this now. It’s absolutely essential.”
Hunt called for a more comprehensive COVID-19 testing program that targeted specific cohorts and people in specific regions of the country to better track infections.
He said: “I think seeing health care staff, seeing taxi drivers is another group, arriving at the airport is another group.
“We find that the best way to find out where the asymptomatic is and feed them into the system so that their contacts can make contact between groups of populations and parts of the country such as Leicester. I think we need to think about large-scale inspections in quarantine.”
