[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Russ

Just watched Panorama. The Tories have blood on their hands.

So what distorted garbage was in it?


1) Which heavily affected country had enough PPE? Not even South Korea did.
2) John Hopkins University(USA) stated that the UK was 2nd best prepared for a pandemic.
3) Plans have been forged since the Civil Contingency Act(2004).
4) Have the devolved governments done any better?
National Risk Register report for 2008.

Up to one half of the UK population may become
infected and between 50,000 and 750,000
additional deaths (that is deaths that would not
have happened over the same period of time had
a pandemic not taken place) may have occurred
by the end of a pandemic in the UK.
• Normal life is likely to face wider social and
economic disruption, significant threats to the
continuity of essential services, lower production
levels, shortages and distribution difficulties.

2016 report

The resilience of contingency
arrangements for the NHS supply chain for medical devices, consumables and pharmaceuticals
was subject to independent review in 2013. The sheer size of the pharmaceutical pipeline means
that the NHS does not normally need to stockpile medicines. However, successive National Risk
Assessments have pointed to the exceptional need to expand the stockpile that has existed
since the 1970s in the case of two contingencies: an influenza pandemic or a bioterrorist attack.
...
The current main stockpile includes some twenty-plus products. It is based primarily on the
assessed risk of an infectious-disease pandemic and of a bioterrorist attack (in the NRA), and
on whether the supplies are generally available in the NHS. Only those which are not usually
available are stockpiled. The total replacement value is over £100 million, so there is quite a
considerable stockpile available for use in the UK.

Pandemic preparedness report from 2015 on face masks.

Our ‘bottom line’ assessment of the available information for both healthcare and community settings is essentially unchanged from the previous HPA review and is similar to that of the recent review on face masks indicated above.
Conclusion
In conclusion there is limited data to support the use of face masks and/or respirators in healthcare and community settings. The effectiveness of masks and respirators is linked to consistent and correct usage; however, this remains a major challenge – both in the context of a formal study and in everyday practice.

As it mentions a previous HPA review, the policy before then was the same.