Johnson's Covid response 'still too slow', warns leading WHO scientist

LONDON, 22 Oct. - (ANA) - A leading World Health Organisation (WHO) scientist has said the UK is still acting too slowly to deal with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr David Nabarro, the WHO's special envoy on Covid-19, accused Boris Johnson's government of "resistance" to quick action for "political reasons".

Speaking to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus on Tuesday, Dr Nabarro said the UK, which has the highest Covid death toll in Europe and fifth highest in the world, has been too slow at all stages of the pandemic so far.

He told parliamentarians: "Countries that prevaricated a bit as the virus started coming in have got much more virus around in their societies, much more opportunity for spreading events to take place, than countries which moved incredibly quickly... when they first had cases.

"That, I'm afraid, is the problem that the UK, the US and several other countries have got because they just did not get on top of it as others like New Zealand and China were able to do."

Asked if the UK still has the same problem, Dr Nabarro said: "Yes. Oh yeah.

"Britain is still, in style, relatively slow and the current situation is that there is resistance to taking the kind of robust and rapid action that is necessary for a mix of political reasons."

Boris Johnson ultimately responded to the UK's spike in Covid infections by introducing a three-tier local lockdown system last week.

However, this was in defiance of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which last month had recommended a more severe circuit breaker national lockdown.

Dr Nabarro, however, said "action is not simply doing lockdowns" as they only "freeze the virus where it is".

He said the "absolute mainstay" is effective contact tracing – which the government has endured major struggles with.

The NHS Test and Trace system has just recorded its worst ever week for reaching close contacts of people who tested positive for the virus: just 62.6%.

In thinly-veiled criticism of NHS Test and Trace, Dr Nabarro argued contact tracing is "best always done locally because you get more confidence between societies and responders through local level organisations that doing it from the top".

The latest figures show cases handled by local health protection teams managed to reach 97.7% of contacts and ask them to self-isolate. The figure was just 57.6% for cases handled online or through outsourced call centres.

Dr Kevin Fong, who is part of NHS England's Covid response team, also told the group that the government is acting "far too late".

He compared the spread of the virus to giving someone a 1p piece and doubling its value every second. It would take 25 seconds for that person to be a millionaire, he said.

Following this, Dr Fong went on: "The decisions we make at political level need to be bold and decisive and urgent because by the time it is obvious to the man or woman in the street that something needs to be done, it is far, far too late.

"And yet, to date, it would feel to me that we have operated at that level."  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/22 October 2020 - - -