I notice Hunt is now playing "Captain Hindsight" about lockdowns (reported in several places but
this was the first on google):
Quote:
“I actually thought we could have avoided all lockdowns if we had been much quicker and set up test and trace as they did in South Korea and Taiwan. Those two places actually didn’t have any lockdowns in 2020.
“That would’ve been my preferred route.”
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Nothing wrong, in principle, with what he said - except for that we had nothing like the required T&T system at all, certainly not on the scale needed, and certainly not on the scale they had already in the Far East, as a former HS he would know this of course. And even then we had enough issues getting tests in that we were only able to test hospital admissions for months on end, all through the first "lockdown".
So how can you apply a T&T system in the community where it has to be, with insufficient tests and not the capacity to do the required contact tracing - in an environment where you're using this to avoid lockdown restrictions and so people are also able to do what they want (and so may not even know their contacts)? It's just sounding like point scoring. The idea is sensible in itself but it works best off a low infection rate (to keep the numbers down) and if you have the kit to do it.
Though the fundamental idea of isolating those with the virus (and either isolating close contacts or telling them to be vigilant/take tests) whilst allowing everyone else to carry on unimpeded is sensible, it does rely on knowing who has the virus.
Also, I don't recall him saying this at the time - probably because it contradicted the "group think" and banging pans to save the NHS which was going on around this time 2 years back.