COVID-19 : GOVERNMENT NEEDS SUPPORT, NOT POLITICAL NIT-PICKING.

I am sick to death of the snide sniping of the Labour Party over the little matter of the coronavirus epidemic.

Today on the Andrew Marr programme (BBC 1) the abomination that is Rachel Reeves demanded that the government reports deaths from the virus that occur in nursing homes and other places in the same way, and on the same timescale, that it reports deaths in hospital. To the uninitiated, this sounds perfectly reasonable but Ms Reeves is fully aware that it's wholly impractical and her words were nothing but an attempt to put the government in a bad light.

Those whose deaths in hospital is a result of the COVID-19 have been tested and infection has been confirmed. Their deaths are certified by a doctor within hours and the numbers can be collated and reported to the relevant public health body (PHE, PHS etc.) very easily. The figures can then be analysed and presented on a daily basis.

For those dying in other locations the situation is very different. For starters, the 'other locations' number in the tens of thousands and most of those dying may well not have been tested; their deaths are from 'suspected' infection, not confirmed infection. Most will probably have been likely to die in the near future from other conditions. While their deaths still have to be certified by a doctor, this will almost certainly be by a GP who may not sign the certificate until a day or more later; the deaths are then registered anything up to 5 days later and finally collated and analysed by the ONS, usually at least many more days later. Reporting of these deaths to the public health overseers on the same basis as the reporting of hospital deaths is simply impractical and would potentially be highly misleading; the reporting would be haphazard and with very poor consistency.

Reeves knows all of this and yet witters on about government failing in this area, as well as in anything else that she and her egregious bunch of pals can think of. If they argued their case properly, it wouldn't be so bad but the way in which they pick and choose their words results in nothing more nor less than attempts to gain political advantage, with no concern whatsoever for the people they claim to be trying to help, support or represent.

What is needed is support for the government and its plan for defeating this epidemic, not sniping from the political sidelines. Reeves and her friends are not alone in being guilty with a number of disenchanted Conservatives, such as Philip Hammond, joining in too. Indeed, it seems that this is becoming as much a battle between those who like Boris Johnson and those who loathe him. Now is not the time for such puerile behaviour, it is a time for all to come together with one message and one avenue of approach. Perhaps surprisingly, Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland has proved to be far more supportive of the UK government and has emerged so far with far greater credit than many others.

What hope is there that other politicians will, rather like Ms Sturgeon, break the habit of a lifetime and work together, rather than use every possible means to gain political advantage ?