Government Minister Walks Out of GMB Interview on COVID Death Rates | Good Morning Britain

Very discouraging news for parents in particular who are struggling with learning at home. We know there is a shortage of laptops. I'm not sure why the promised 1.3 million laptops have not yet been distributed when we are almost a year into this pandemic. parents, any guarantee on when schools will reopen well, the prime

minister

has been clear that he wants to get back to face-to-face learning as soon as possible, it was when medical officials activated alert level five, where the nhs was at risk of being I'm overwhelmed because he made the decision that we had to effectively close schools to the vast majority of children.

I realize that remote learning is a challenge for children, for parents, for schools, but we need to make sure we get infection

rates

down. control and as gavin williams did on this show last week, he was saying, you know, families and schools would be the first to know, yeah, well, we'd also like to know as soon as possible when the shutdown happened, the indication was that The mid-February term would be the point at which we could see some sort of gradual return which we are now told will likely occur around Easter. What threshold needs to be reached in terms of r rate or number of infections, hospitalizations or

death

s?

Numbers, God forbid, before allowing children to return to schools, well, the

government

has not publicly set specific criteria, that is because there continues to be an ongoing evaluation of the evidence to see what is happening with the infection

rates

across the country and see the impact. The NHS and I know that parents want to make sure, of course, that they would like their children to go back to school, and I would do the same with the

government

, but I am aware that we need to ensure that the vectors of transmission are limited , so we have the broader message about staying home, uh, during this lockdown.

I know we want to try to make sure that you suggest that the infection numbers, the infection numbers and hospitalizations or the infection numbers and the infection rate are significant, but what is that? threshold What are we? What are we waiting for? Because I think parents, when they're told it's February half-term, okay, we could have held out until that. Now they tell them it's Easter, we have to wait until then. How much? They will have to hold on for longer. Well, the government has not referred to any other date in terms of its consideration. We have been consistent in trying to say that we need to control the impact on the NHS and that is it.

Why are the officials working with the

minister

s, but when you say the impact of the enemy, what does that mean, what are the infection figures and what are the hospitalization figures that we are trying to reach because otherwise this is as long as a piece of chain, isn't that okay like I said? I can't give you specific criteria today. It's a uh a pretty nimble discussion that's happening in terms of I know the uncertainty is worrying parents and kids and schools. but there is no point in me trying to give you a full idea of ​​what exactly the criteria are when it comes to an agile situation and where we will wait for the advice of our expert advisors that is the option there is an option there is an option that has been suggested because obviously we are not going to obtain specific criteria, so parents still don't know what about vaccinating teachers.

That is something that is supported even by several of his own deputies. Let's vaccinate the teachers, protect them and then we can get the children back into the classrooms, well susanna it is understandable that the vaccination program is initially aimed at those groups of people who are sadly more likely to die if they can trace the virus and that's why we have this goal for mid-February to surpass that first one. group of four cohorts now at the same time, our medical officials are rightly telling the public that we still do not adequately know the impact of reducing transmission rates once people are vaccinated.

There is active work on that evaluation or evaluating that, so maybe when the jcvi gets that evidence they can potentially make some recommendations about whether we should change for phase two uh the priorities for people, whether it's teachers, police, other people who They have no choice but to interact with the public in the way they do their jobs. uh but that will again be something that will be appropriately considered based on the evidence on the impacts that vaccines will have on transmission. Okay, Miss Coffee, can I ask you? It has been a year since the coronavirus first came to the world's attention from Wuhan in China.

All of that has happened particularly in the UK where we now have the worst

death

rate in the world over the last week and given that over 100,000 people have died at least from chronovirus in this country or coronavirus, do you think we were well prepared As a country for this type of outbreak, clearly the government had preparations for certain types of flu-centered pandemics. This has been a much more impactful virus than anyone in the world anticipated in this sense, I think one of the things. What we need to reflect on is also what happened not only with the creation of the vaccination but also with the program that is underway in the United Kingdom, but also the fact that our scientists through the genomics program have been able to very quickly identify the outbreak of new variants that have potentially higher risks, I mean, our scientists have done a great job.

I'm really talking about the way the government has handled the pandemic, given the problems with PPE, given the failure of our testing system, given the late closures, given all the problems we have. What have I faced? Would you look back at the end of January and say that this country was well prepared for this type of outbreak or do you think, thinking about it, we were not well prepared? As I say, I think we were well prepared for a certain type of pandemic. outbreak that is the basis of what has been our history within this country to be prepared for the more traditional flu, this virus, as I say, has had much more impact.

I am aware of the things that decisions were made from the beginning, that were made with the best. understanding of the virus at that time, also the different resources, but I think we should look back, as I say, that we have made sure that we have invested in the appropriate ways to try to make sure that we can continue to learn from what is happening. It happened and we will continue to be prepared. I think vaccines address the truth and that will be the case, making sure that the truth is that we were not prepared and the reason why I ask you do you think we will now prepare well given that we have this horrendous record of deaths, currently the worst world mortality rate, we have terrible economic consequences, we are nowhere near overcoming this virus, if anything we are even worse than we were at the beginning, I want to play you a clip, this is Matt Hancock. the health secretary in parliament on January 23 in which he is very reassuring with permission.

I would like to brief the House on the outbreak of a new corona virus in China and the UK's response to protect the British public. We have been closely monitoring the situation in Wuhan and have implemented proportionate precautionary measures. Our approach at all times has been guided by the advice of Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, although there is a greater likelihood that cases could emerge in this country. We are well prepared and well equipped. to deal with them and the public can be assured that the whole of the UK is always well prepared for these types of outbreaks and will remain vigilant and keep our response under constant review in light of emerging scientific evidence.

I mean, I couldn't have done it. Could I have been more wrong? Were we completely unprepared for this type of outbreak? that we were said that we were prepared for this type of outbreak it turned out that we were completely unprepared and that is what I have already tried to explain uh it seems that we were I think we were very well prepared for the more traditional type of flu, this has had a broader impact than perhaps was expected, but nevertheless, we have had a variety of resources deployed unconsciously, you know, when people first came back from Wuhan, they were put in an Arab park, there was a way to try to contain it .

While we have gradually escalated our measures as infections have decreased, we have also been able to ease restrictions, so the government has continued to try to recognize the moment ahead of us to try to make sure we are ready. in new zealand we had a scientist we had a scientist from new zealand before urging the government to do what they did, which is go for xero

covid

and now they live a very normal life in new zealand, albeit with a draconian border policy, where if you enter, you have to quarantine for two weeks and you have to test negative several times and then you are allowed back into the big bear world of the big

good

world of New Zealand.

Why have we never done that? Now we are doing all this, almost a year after the virus exploded in the world, why have we decided that it is a

good

idea now but it wasn't when the virus first appeared? When the first virus hit, we actually put people in Arrow Park who were traveling back from China at that time how many people how many people do you know, but mates, I don't know the answer to that, but mates, it was a couple of hundred, right? So? I mean, let's be honest, we've only quarantined, killed a hundred people, haven't we?

I would say that we've had a number of restrictions, uh, that we've had on international travel, you know, certainly in the run-up to Christmas, we were saying to people, please only consider the essential issues, unaware that people They have chosen to do different things during that time, but in terms of the introduction of locator forms, we now have pre-testing of people who want to come to this country in The terms of the 10-day isolation period have been in place for some time, as well as the release of the assessor and the Prime Minister is clear that we will continue to consider further measures that may be deemed necessary as I say we have improved. but if, like you say, okay, listen, which ones are more challenging?

If, as you say, we have done all the right things, can you explain why we currently have the worst mortality rate in the world? Can you explain why we have one of the highest? number of deaths in the world, if we did everything right, would we end up here? Well, as I say, we've been learning throughout this process working with scientific advisors to try to make the right policies, there will be a variety of reasons why people have unfortunately died because of this, some of that will be recognizing the age of our population, some of that will be recognizing the obesity of our population, but we have been learning all along how we can improve different ways of trying to help people during this time.

At the same time, I'm very aware of the economic impact it's had, especially on young people, that's why we're trying to do what we can with education, that's why we created Kickstart, that's why we're trying to get it right, but just to clarify , I have given you listen, I applaud you for giving us some reasons because it is the first time that we have heard from you none of your colleagues about a couple of Russian experts none of your colleagues from last week could give us any of the ones that the two of us have given now we have an aging population and obesity, so are you saying that the reason we have the worst mortality rate in the world is because the public is too old and too fat?

I think it's a very insulting thing that I just said that it's unconscious that there are a variety of factors that will have led to people unfortunately being sick during this time, unfortunately, that translates into deaths. I am aware that this is a very serious impact on our own Prime Minister. He himself was in intensive care at the hospital last April. I am aware that we want to ensure that we have comprehensive support. So what did you find insulting out of interest? What did you find insulting? You said you gave two reasons for that. the fact that we have the words to point out that you started this too late unfortunately I have to go to other stations uh too um and I wish we had more time when we were I haven't

interview

ed you since May you can come back anytime you were the one who boycotted the show , so please don't play, please don't play, you haven't given me enough time card because we gave you eight months and you didn't show up.

I'm asking you this since you said they insulted me. I'm sorry. I have to go. You're going. You're not going to explain why you think I was the one insulted. 20 minutes of my time. I appreciate your time too thanks bye wow okaythank you miss coffee okay it's interesting because she pulls gives two very easy reasons why we have the worst mortality rate in the world apparently we have an aging population so we're too old and we have an e and we don't we're too fat and However, when I said that, it is the public's fault that we are too fat and nothing to do with the government, it was me who insulted, I just want to point out after Prime Minister Boris Johnson left hospital after recovering from coronavirus.

He himself had a press conference in which he said that he had an underlying problem and he literally said that he was too fat, so he understood that particular problem from the beginning. An incredible problem. He thinks I'm the insulting one. Well the only reason I could give is a government minister explaining why we have the worst death rate in the world the age of our population and the fact that we are too fat apparently that's the way it is, apparently I'm the one doing the insulting because the government has done nothing even though Matt Hancock in that clip we played told us that we were well prepared for any This type of outbreak and it turned out that we were not, but nothing that the government has done is that the problem has to do with our age and our weight.