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UK ‘did not learn lessons’ from previous epidemics, says PM

Image: Number 10 [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr

Boris Johnson said that, despite the Covid-19 crisis, the government will ‘meet all manifesto commitments’

The UK “did not learn the lessons” from previous outbreaks of other coronavirus infections and as a result was unprepared to meet the demand for testing at the beginning of the current pandemic, according to the prime minister.

Boris Johnson made the comments during a liaison committee hearing on the science, impact and way ahead in the UK’s current coronavirus crisis.

Asked why it took until April to introduce a target of 100,000 tests per day, Johnson said the government had faced “several difficulties” at the beginning of the outbreak.

“Our testing operation began much earlier but, unfortunately, we did not have the capacity in Public Health England. To be absolutely blunt, we did not have the enzymes, the test kits—we just didn’t have the volume, nor did we have enough experienced trackers to mount the kind of operation that they did in some Eastern Asian countries.

“I think the brutal reality is that this country did not learn the lessons of Sars or Mers and we didn’t have a test operation ready to go on the scale that we needed.”

Asked about the continued delays in getting test results back, Johnson said the government had set a 24-hour target. However, he would not confirm the deadline for reaching the target, following controversies with several previous targets on the number of tests.

“I’m not going to give you a deadline right now…because I’ve been forbidden from announcing any more targets and deadlines,” he told the committee, adding it would be “as soon as possible”.

When pressed on the cause of the delays to testing, Johnson said they were caused “very largely by difficulties in the labs with actually producing the results in a speedy and effective way” as well as a “host of technical problems”.

His comments came ahead of the announcement of the government’s new Covid-19 test and trace programme. Under new measures, anyone who tests positive for coronavirus will be contacted by the NHS test and trace service, and will be asked to share information about their recent interactions.

Those identified as having been in close contact with someone who has a positive test must stay at home for 14 days, even if they do not have symptoms, to stop them unknowingly spreading the virus.

Asked about the “minimal” involvement of directors of public health in the designing of the system, Johnson said he had a “strong desire to have much more local expertise and use all the local knowledge far more effectively”.

He also faced questions on the recovery from the crisis.

“The challenge now is going to be about getting the economy moving again and creating jobs that are high-class, good jobs for the whole country,” the prime minister told MPs.

“My mantra remains that the way to do that is with fantastic infrastructure, better education, better skills and technology…we’re going to stick ruthlessly to that and indeed…we’re gonna double down on that programme, we want to intensity that.”

He underscored his dedication to delivering on the Conservative party 2019 election manifesto: “We’re gonna meet all our manifesto commitments…we won’t be blown off course…we’re gonna get on with our programme and we’ve got a fantastic agenda for this country of uniting, levelling-up.”

One of the manifesto promises was to deliver “the fastest ever increase in domestic public R&D spending…to meet our target of 2.4 per cent of GDP being spent on R&D across the economy.”

He added he was keen to use the current crisis to address the skills shortages and the productivity gap that exists in the country, something recently highlighted by his Council for Science and Technology.

His embattled chief aide, Dominic Cummings, has also been a prominent proponent of science, technology and data within government.

“One of the ways in which the country is getting easier, as it were, to help,” Johnson said, “…we do have so much more data—we understand where people are, what the problems are—one of the things we’re using to tackle this epidemic.”