Sunday Times Covid article summary

  1. Boris Johnson did not attend the first five emergency government meetings
  2. In the early stages Johnson was more focused on the EU withdrawal & his cabinet reshuffle
  3. Johnson spent 12 days on a country retreat holiday in February – while his ministers, medical and science experts were discussing plans for dealing with the virus. They were told to cut contact down with him
  4. Johnson did return to London for a night though – to attend a Conservatives fundraising ball S. Johnson attended his first emergency meeting on 2 March
  5. Emergency stockpiles of PPE had dwindled and gone out of date after becoming low priority due to austerity cuts
  6. Training to prepare key workers for a pandemic was on hold for 2 years while contingency planning was diverted to deal with a possible no-deal Brexit
  7. The Conservatives were first warned about mass deaths and lack of PPE in January
  8. Despite the above, 279,000 items of PPE were Sent to China in February
  9. The Conservatives were first advised that a lockdown would be necessary on 22 January
  10. 190,000 people flew into the LJK from Wuhan & other high-risk Chinese cities between January & March