Covid-19 climbdowns: the UK government's U-turns and missteps
Claims of ‘world-beating’ response tarnished by reversals on everything from testing to face coverings
After not just one but two high-profile U-turns, it has arguably been a week to forget for No 10. They will be added to a growing list of apparent failures that cast doubt on the government’s claim that its approach to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic would be “world beating”. Here’s a rundown of some of its missteps so far:
18 June: contact-tracing app
The government was forced to abandon its coronavirus contact-tracing app, which it had been developing for three months and poured millions of pounds into, despite experts repeatedly warning that it would not work. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, who previously said the app would be ready for nationwide rollout in mid-May after being trialled on the Isle of Wight, explained that the NHS would switch to a decentralised alternative designed by tech giants Apple and Google.
16 June: school meal vouchers
Boris Johnson announced that the government would be providing food vouchers for some of England’s poorest families after a campaign launched by the footballer Marcus Rashford. It came just 24 hours after No 10 had rejected his plea for it to keep paying for the £15-a-week vouchers over the summer.
11 June: excess deaths
Prof Neil Ferguson, who was advising the government at the time lockdown was imposed, gave damning testimony that the UK’s Covid-19 death toll could have been halved if the government had introduced the measure a week earlier. Johnson insisted that it was premature to make judgments about the government’s approach.
9 June: reopening schools
The government’s goal was for all primary school children in England to be back in class for a month before the summer holiday. Earlier this month, however, the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, admitted that not all children would be able to return before the summer, with some having to wait until September.
20 May: bereavement scheme
A scheme granting indefinite leave to remain in the UK to relatives of foreign national NHS staff who die from Covid-19 was extended to low-paid workers after their exclusion attracted widespread criticism. The scheme, introduced in April, initially excluded cleaners, porters and social care workers.
21 May: visa surcharge
In the first major U-turn of his premiership, Johnson announced that overseas NHS staff and care workers would no longer have to pay a controversial visa surcharge. he had rejected calls to scrap it at prime minister’s questions the day before.
12 May: face coverings
A fortnight after stressing that the evidence was weak on the benefits of face coverings, the government changed its advice to say they should be worn in enclosed spaces and public transport. It later went further, with a new rule imposed on 15 June that anyone travelling on public transport in England must wear a face covering.
12 March: testing in the community
The government stopped testing in the community on 12 March and retreated to testing principally in hospitals, according to a damning letter MPs sent to Johnson. The science and technology committee wrote in May that the consequences had been that care home residents and carers could not be tested “at a time when the spread of the virus was at its most rampant”. The government announced plans to rapidly scale up testing at the beginning of April, when the health secretary, Matt Hancock, pledged 100,000 tests a day in England by the end of that month.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...downs-the-uk-governments-u-turns-and-missteps
