Boris Johnson and his ministers accused of bungling coronavirus response, unleashing disaster
Source: Washington Post
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ministers coming under criticism that they underestimated the threat, were slow to act and are bungling the response. Over the weekend, the most-talked-about article was a Sunday Times report, headlined “38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster,” which revealed that Johnson failed to attend five high-level emergency meetings called to prepare for the outbreak in January and February.
The most damning, most tweetable quote came from an anonymous source, described as a “senior adviser to Downing Street,” who complained that Johnson “didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends … There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.” The Sunday Times painted Johnson as deeply involved with Brexit in January, distracted by his complicated personal life, including his divorce and engagement in February, and showing insufficient attention to detail until the first wave was rushing toward Britain in March.
The Sunday Times painted Johnson as deeply involved with Brexit in January, distracted by his complicated personal life, including his divorce and engagement in February, and showing insufficient attention to detail until the first wave was rushing toward Britain in March. And yet, Michael Gove, one of the top ministers entrusted with orchestrating a response to the coronavirus, did confirm Sunday a central charge in the article: that Johnson had missed the five emergency meetings.
In addition to what critics say was a slow initial response, the government has been flayed for its failure to have ready large numbers of mechanical ventilators, for the soaring numbers of deaths in nursing homes, for inadequate testing of nurses and doctors and for an ongoing shortage of the protective visors, masks, gloves and especially gowns for front-line medical workers.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/boris-johnson-and-his-ministers-criticized-for-response-to-coronavirus-threat/2020/04/20/6e3d24e8-830a-11ea-81a3-9690c9881111_story.html
Johnson tried to rally automotive companies and vacuum-cleaner makers last month to pivot to ventilator assembly. But little has come of that effort. In its rebuttal to charges that Johnson and his government “brushed aside” the threat posed by the virus, the Health Ministry produced its own timeline and pushback.
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