A Surprise Gift

I had a fab surprise gift today from friends of a tin of these fab biscuits, all mini works of art. It really cheered me up on yet another wet day, I was going to visit a local garden but postponed it until tomorrow due to the weather.

Instead I watched most of the 7 hours of Dominic Cummings’ evidence to MPs on a Select Committee on learning lessons from the management of the pandemic. All very interesting and a lot very damning, but little I hadn’t suspected and, as someone whose career was independently reviewing the management of risk in large organisations, there was nothing I hadn’t seen before. Unfortunately senior management rarely represent the most capable people in an organisation and generally have a blind spot that large risks could crystallise (at least not in the 3 years they’ll be in that role). 

He said the Health Secretary should have been sacked for repeatedly lying (incl about people being tested before returning to care homes from hospital),  that Boris was ‘unfit for the job’, that Plan A was for herd immunity, that valid pandemic plans were non-existent, and that ‘tens of thousands died who didn’t need to’. He also discussed the security problems which let to him taking his family to Durham and apologised for his failings in his role.

Day 436 / Day 10 of Step 3 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
Matt Hancock has been seriously undermined by Dominic Cummings’ damning evidence to MPs today (see above). There were 3,180 new cases today, up 18% from a week ago. Singapore data suggests that the Indian variant is more common in children. Austria is banning direct flights and tourist visits from Germany and the UK. France is introducing mandatory quarantine for people arriving from the UK. The NHS has been put on alert for people suffering an ischaemic stroke within a month of getting the AZ vaccine following 3 cases of people in their 30s / 40s. Risk of Covid death for people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds was higher in the 2nd wave.