Government accused of suppressing ‘terrifying’ findings of three-day simulation exercise
The government is on a collision course with the information commissioner over its refusal to publish a confidential report warning that the UK’s health system could not cope in a pandemic.
In a dramatic move, the Information Commissioner’s Office has ordered the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to hand over the report into Exercise Cygnus, or explain its decision for refusing, by 23 October.
Cygnus, a three-day simulation exercise in 2016, assessed the UK’s ability to cope with an influenza pandemic, but its findings are pertinent to the current coronavirus crisis.
Lawyers for an NHS doctor, Moosa Qureshi, who made a freedom of information request six months ago demanding to see the Cygnus report, have accused the government of deliberately delaying its response to his request. There is speculation that this is because the report’s contents would confirm that the government had failed to learn the lessons from its own exercise.
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It’s all too evident the government failed to learn any lessons at all. Six months before the covid-19 pandemic Johnson disbanded the anti-pandemic team that Theresa May had mothballed in 2016 the better to focus on Brexit. So, how’s that worked out? To date the UK has the fifth largest death toll from covid-19. It’s “world-beating” track & trace app lurches from disaster to debacle and Johnson’s messages contradict each other resulting in Johnson blaming the public for rising numbers of covid infections. At least the disbanding of the team meant the government could focus on Brexit. The negotiations are going swimmingly, I hear.