Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Every week dozens of planning applications are submitted to the local councils – and the coronavirus pandemic has not changed that.

While some council services have been suspended as a result of COVID-19, planning departments are still working as usual to validate and to decide upon applications.

Here [on the link above] is the list of applications that have been submitted and validated by the various local councils or planning authorities in Devon in the last week.

Owl reproduces only those for East Devon (one of the longer lists) – good to see so many people busy:

EAST DEVON

• Construction of single storey rear extension measuring 3.825m in depth, height to eaves of 2.1m and a total height of 3.082m, materials to match existing house – 63 Shearwater Way Seaton Devon EX12 2FT – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q98HA7GH01C00&activeTab=summary
• Deed of variation to amend the mortgagee exclusion clause (MEC) to the Section 106 agreement and deed of variation pursuant to application 13/0365/MOUT – Land To The East Of The Village Hall Sidmouth Road Clyst St Mary – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q94V2FGH09100&activeTab=summary
• Construction of dormer window to front and rear; 1st floor extension over existing garage – 130 Hulham Road Exmouth EX8 4RD – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8XWIGGHLCB00&activeTab=summary
• Erection of a cow cubicle building – Curscombe Farm Feniton Honiton EX14 3EU – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8ZR6IGHLCR00&activeTab=summary
• Conversion of redundant agricultural buildings to market dwelling – Fawnsmoor Farm Lyme Road Axminster EX13 5SW – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8ZR5LGHLCM00&activeTab=summary
• Removal of condition 4 of 19/2095/FUL relating to holiday accommodation – Farrantshayes Farm Clyst Hydon Cullompton EX15 2NQ – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8TWANGH09100&activeTab=summary
• Construction of single storey and first floor extension, detached double garage and new vehicular access with associated hardstanding – The Hawthorns Rhode Lane Uplyme Lyme Regis DT7 3TX – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8KXSWGHL9600&activeTab=summary
• Construction of dormer window to rear to allow loft conversion; first floor roof terrace with glass balustrade – 10 Batts Lane Ottery St Mary EX11 1EY – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8J35NGHL8J00&activeTab=summary
• Construction of dormer windows to front and rear, raising of roof to provide additional 1st floor accommodation and provision of cladding – Highfield Higher Way Harpford Sidmouth EX10 0NJ – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q8H8KOGHL8600&activeTab=summary
• Construction of lean to rear sunroom, and insertion of first floor window to south west elevation – 2 Honors Farm Stoke Canon Exeter EX5 4RN – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q87Z5BGHL4B00&activeTab=summary
• Construction of single storey rear extension, alterations to patio and associated steps; replacement of 5 no. windows – Western Cottage Broadhembury Honiton EX14 3NQ – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q864J0GHL3W00&activeTab=summary
• Change of use and extension of guest house and owners’ accommodation to three holiday flats and one flat at Bay Tree House – 11 Seafield Road Seaton EX12 2QS – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q7RDY6GHKZE00&activeTab=summary
• Insertion of french doors to the existing rear bay windows – Flat 1 Heathgate 7 Lansdowne Road Budleigh Salterton EX9 6AH – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q6S79FGHKP200&activeTab=summary
• Conversion of existing outbuilding and raising of roof to provide ancillary accomodation and replacement of septic tank with sewerage treatment plant – Blue Anchor Payhembury Honiton EX14 3HG – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q67U9OGHKHY00&activeTab=summary
• Variation of Condition 2 of planning permission 19/1478/VAR (construction of a dwelling) to allow enlarged porch, re-positioning of roadside retaining walls and cladding of gable ends – Land South Of Elgin Bassetts Gardens Exmouth – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q6H39MGHKL500&activeTab=summary
• Construction of balustrades over existing wall around two balconies – Westwards Bickwell Valley Sidmouth EX10 8RF – https://planning.eastdevon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=Q310LUGHJPQ00&activeTab=summary

The prime minister’s chief political adviser, Dominic Cummings, and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit are on the secret scientific group advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic, according to a list leaked to the Guardian.

Ahhhhh! Owl thinks we now know why all the secrecy surrounding SAGE (misnomer surely?). Two of Boris Johnson’s special advisers have been participating regularly, including Dominic Cummings (who isn’t even a scientist).

The committee is chaired by the Chief Scientist, Sir Patrick Vallance and the Chief Medical Officer for Public Health England, Prof. Chris Whitty is a core member. Not exactly what Owl would describe as “independent”.

Kate Proctor  www.theguardian.com 

It reveals that both Cummings and Ben Warner were among 23 attendees present at a crucial convening of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on 23 March, the day Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in a televised address.

Multiple attendees of Sage told the Guardian that both Cummings and Warner had been taking part in meetings of the group as far back as February. The inclusion of Downing Street advisers on Sage will raise questions about the independence of its scientific advice.

There has been growing pressure on Downing Street in recent days to disclose more details about the group, which provides scientific advice to the upper echelons of government during emergencies. Both the membership of Sage and its advice to ministers on the Covid-19 outbreak is being kept secret.

Warner, a data scientist, was reportedly recruited to Downing Street last year by Cummings after running the Conservative party’s general election campaign model. He is also said to have worked closely with Cummings on the data modelling used in the Vote Leave campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.

The government’s former chief scientific adviser Sir David King said he was “shocked” to discover there were political advisers on Sage. “If you are giving science advice, your advice should be free of any political bias,” he said. “That is just so critically important.”

Told that Cummings was in the 23 March meeting, King replied: “Oh my goodness. Isn’t this maybe why they don’t want us to know who was there?”

King said political advisers were never on the equivalent committees of Sage when he chaired them and argued that Cummings, who is not a scientist, could report his own interpretation of Sage advice back to the prime minister.

Other former members of Sage also said they could not recall political appointees being on previous committees. David Lidington, a former Cabinet Office minister and de facto deputy to Theresa May when she was prime minister, said: “I’m not aware of any minister or special adviser, certainly not in Theresa May’s time, ever having been involved in the scientific advisory panels.”

In a statement provided by Downing Street, a government spokesperson said: “Expert participants often vary for each meeting according to which expertise is required. A number of representatives from government departments and No 10 attend also.”

Late on Friday, Downing Street released a second statement. “It is not true that Mr Cummings or Dr Warner are ‘on’ or members of Sage. Mr Cummings and Dr Warner have attended some Sage meetings and listen to some meetings now they are all virtual. Occasionally they ask questions or offer help when scientists mention problems in Whitehall,” a No 10 spokesman said.

“Sage provides independent scientific advice to the government. Political advisers have no role in this,” the spokesperson added. “Public confidence in the media has collapsed during this emergency partly because of ludicrous stories such as this.”

Downing Street declined to say how many Sage meetings Cummings and Warner attended, or whether any other political advisers took part.

Sage participants told the Guardian the Downing Street advisers were not merely observing the advisory meetings, but actively participating in discussions about the formation of advice.

In a letter to parliament this month, Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, who chairs Sage, said the “decision not to disclose” membership of the committee was based on advice from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.

“This contributes towards safeguarding individual members’ personal security and protects them from lobbying and other forms of unwanted influence which may hinder their ability to give impartial advice,” Vallance wrote. “Of course, we do not stop individuals from revealing that they have attended Sage.”

On Friday, England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, appeared to signal a change in direction, saying the public had a right to know who sat on Sage. He told a Commons science select committee that while it was important to consider security concerns, there was “absolutely no barrier” from him or Vallance. Asked if in the current climate revealing the names of who was on the group would boost public confidence in the scientific advice being given, Whitty replied: “Yes.”

Several members on Sage, as well as scientists on its advisory subcommittees, are known to be frustrated at what they view as a culture of secrecy that risks straining public trust in the government’s response to Covid-19.

Since the outbreak, ministers have stuck to the script that their policies are guided by scientific advice, while declining to reveal where the advice is coming from or what exactly it contains.

Other countries have been more open about the scientific evidence behind their decisions, and the UK’s approach has raised eyebrows overseas.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Sage operates in “a virtual black box”. “Its list of members is secret, its meetings are closed, its recommendations are private and the minutes of its deliberations are published much later, if at all.”

The Guardian understands that Sage first met for a precautionary meeting to discuss Covid-19 on 22 January, then again on 28 January. It met a further nine times in February, and 10 times in March. It is currently meeting around twice a week.

It understood that while the chief medical officers and chief scientific advisers of the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been allowed to listen in on Sage meetings, they have been doing so as observers. Unlike Cummings and Warner, they were not allowed to ask questions, having to instead submit them in writing in advance.

While core members of the committee, such as Whitty, attend all meetings, other clinical experts, scientists and epidemiologists do not attend every meeting, but can be asked in on a rotating basis to provide specific advice. Sage tends to be guided by specific questions that they are asked to consider by the Cabinet Office’s emergency Cobra meetings.

Other Sage participants at the 23 March meeting included Sharon Peacock, the director of the National Infection Service at Public Health England, and Ian Diamond, the head of the Government Statistical Service. Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College epidemiologist whose models have been central to government decision–making, was also present, along with fellow infectious disease specialists, Graham Medley and John Edmunds.

Others attendees included Brooke Rogers, a professor of behavioural science at King’s College – who also chairs the Cabinet Office’s National Risk Assessment Behavioural Science Advisory Group – and James Rubin, also at King’s, who chairs a Sage subcommittee that provides specific advice on behavioural science.

However it is the inclusion of two Downing Street political advisers that will raise questions over whether the structure of the government’s scientific advisory process is free from political interference.

A source in Downing Street said that in March Cummings was playing a commanding role in responding to the Covid-19 outbreak. Cummings is understood to be close to Warner, whose brother, Marc, runs Faculty, an artificial intelligence company that the Guardian revealed is involved in an “unprecedented” data-mining operation as part of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

An accomplished data scientist, Ben Warner previously worked at his brother’s AI company, which has teamed up with Palantir, the US data firm founded by the rightwing billionaire Peter Thiel, to consolidate UK government databases to help ministers respond to the pandemic.

New Zealanders will return to work on Monday as the country eases a strict lockdown hailed as an example to the world for keeping deaths below 20. (Owl thinks it no coincidence that New Zealand has a female prime minister)

Bernard Lagan, Sydney  www.thetimes.co.uk 

About half a million of New Zealand’s more than 2.5 million workers will return to their jobs as the construction and forestry industries resume, and more retailers open after a month-long lockdown that brought the country to a standstill.

New Zealand’s restrictions extended to every non-essential business, leaving only supermarkets and pharmacies open — actions only matched in severity by India and Israel.

The nation of five million led by Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, is, like Taiwan, seeking to eliminate Covid-19 from within its borders while most other countries, including its much larger neighbour Australia, pursue less stringent suppression policies.

New Zealand has the world’s lowest mortality rate for coronavirus and ranks among the lowest for the number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people. As of yesterday, only 17 people had died of the disease.

Ms Ardern, 39, said that New Zealand would continue to pursue its goal of elimination with a strategy that differs from most other nations. “Success doesn’t mean zero Covid-19 cases,” she said. “It means zero tolerance — as soon as we have a case, we go in straight away, testing around that person. We’re isolating them . . . we do our interviews and contact trace to find all the people who have been in contact with them while they may have passed it on, and we ask them to isolate. That’s how we keep stamping out Covid cases.”

While the country has been widely lauded for its “go hard, go fast” strategy, Australia has on some measures achieved even better results. By yesterday, it had recorded 77 coronavirus deaths among a population of 25 million — a slightly lower per capita death rate than New Zealand.

Australia has had a looser lockdown strategy and has kept many more shops and workplaces open, including the building industry, but is struggling to safely relax restrictions on movement and recreation. Sydney reopened its Maroubra and Coogee beaches on Monday but closed them again because visitors failed to abide by rules that require them to keep moving and not sunbathe.

Experts have said that New Zealand and Australia had advantages fighting Covid-19 because of their smaller population densities, remote locations and increased knowledge about the disease because it hit larger nations first.

“It was the horror, I guess, seeing what was happening in Italy in places, but also watching the other countries that were closer to China and who had experience with Sars and things before,” Dr Siouxsie Wiles, a micro- biologist at Auckland University and one of the architects of New Zealand’s strategy, said.

“They were responding differently. It was clear you could do something different and have a different outcome to what was happening in countries like Italy. That was the first thing — we had time on our side.”

She insisted that restrictions would only be gradually removed and that the virus was not beaten. “If the public starts thinking or acting that this means we can kind of go and hang out with our friends, then, if we still have the virus in little pockets of the country, we could start to see it coming up again,” she said. “So we’re in a delicate position.”

Ms Ardern rejected a scheme yesterday that would have allowed the foreign super-rich to buy their way into New Zealand in return for investing $50 million in the economy. “We don’t want people paying for passports,” she said. Leading business figures had called on her government to offer about 2,000 visas to foreigners who could invest into the country — once the virus was eradicated — as a way to boost the economy, which has been forecast to reach unemployment rates of at least 10 per cent.

Earlier this week Bloomberg reported that Silicon Valley executives had escaped to hideout shelters in New Zealand because of the pandemic.

Suffocating the enemy

Feb 3 New Zealand introduces entry restrictions for foreigners travelling from, or transiting through, China.

Feb 28 A person in their 60s arriving from Iran is diagnosed with Covid-19, the country’s first case.

Feb 29 Health staff start to meet flights from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand to look for symptoms.

March 1 Australia and the US report first virus deaths.

March 2 Global death toll tops 3,000. New Zealand rules that anyone who has visited northern Italy or South Korea must self-isolate for 14 days.

March 14 Anyone entering the country must self-isolate for 14 days bar those arriving from the Pacific Island nations. Cruise ships banned.

March 16 Any tourists who arrive and do not self-quarantine risk being deported.

March 19 Borders closed to all but NZ citizens and permanent residents.

March 23 People are told to stay at home by the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to stop community transmission.

March 24 Schools and universities and all non-essential businesses shut. Travel is severely limited.

March 25 State of emergency is declared. The nation goes into self-isolation.

For Trish Mannes, telling people that they have coronavirus brings out the best in humanity. “Most people are worried about others,” is her conclusion after years of experience as an expert contact tracer attempting to halt the outbreak of infectious diseases of all kinds.

Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor  www.thetimes.co.uk 

Since February, that has meant coronavirus, when Ms Mannes was leading efforts to slow the first cases of the outbreak around Brighton and elsewhere in southeast England. “They would all say ‘oh but my daughter’s about to sit GCSEs, what does that mean for her?’ or ‘oh my goodness I visited my elderly mother last week’. It’s always worries for others. It’s incredible — people talk a lot about a fairly self-centred selfish society, I don’t actually think that’s the case.

“In our experiences, people would say, ‘absolutely, we’ll do as you ask because this is about protecting the community’.”

The principles of contact tracing, in essence, have remained unchanged for centuries. Find a case. Quarantine them. Work out who they have been in contact with. Quarantine them, too.

Having controversially abandoned mass contact tracing in the early stages of outbreak, Britain is about to return to it on a mass scale. Hopes of loosening social distancing depend on training up an army of tracers to stay on top of every case, using skills learned by experts such as Ms Mannes.

While she says that “a good chunk of this is very, very formulaic”, one of the key skills is the crucial first interview with each case, where tracers must make sure that they have found out everything they can about a person’s movements.

“They key things are interpersonal skills and your ability to empathise with people and to understand where they’re coming from,” she said. “The other trick is about investigation and to be really thorough, and ensure that you ask all the right questions and remain curious about what you might be missing.”

In the early days of the outbreak she recalls that as well as fear, “people felt very guilty about who they may have infected . . . there was an enormous sense of, ‘oh gosh, have I just brought this horrible disease in to the UK? Is this my fault?’ We had to do a lot of reassurance around ‘this is a disease, you are a person who contracedt it, it is not your fault’.”

Since then, as contact tracing as continued in efforts to halt outbreaks in care homes, things have got easier in some ways. “It’s a different request than it was in February. No one’s got social events that they’re cancelling,” she said.

As Britain returns to mass contact tracing it will be “a lot more automated”, with mass texts sent out to groups of contacts. People will still be needed to do phone contacts but Ms Mannes says “that’s reasonably simple conversation and someone can be trained to do that . . . If that conversation becomes more difficult there’ll be a higher tier, where people have more skills more training, and then they’ll eventually get to the experts.”

In many ways, though, she expects the job to get easier: “No one has to be convinced to take coronavirus seriously, and it is no longer so hard to persuade people to stay at home.”

(According to the Guardian all the home testing bookings had been taken by 6.02 am, two minutes after the website opened, and the drive-in testing appointments ran out before 8.30 am. Nearest test site are Plymouth and Bristol). Owl wonders just how fit for purpose this approach is for those key workers such as hard pressed care home workers. 

Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor  www.thetimes.co.uk

Matt Hancock’s hopes of hitting his 100,000-a-day testing pledge received a boost yesterday as thousands of people tried to book coronavirus tests online.

Ministers insisted it was a sign of success that the website stopped accepting bookings within hours of opening because testing centres had run out of slots. Hospitals complained, however, that the benchmark distorted priorities by putting a dash for numbers above sensible allocation of tests.

Although slots are meant to be reserved for key workers, officials admit that this is being taken on trust to ensure that laboratory capacity is not wasted. About 16,500 people booked slots yesterday, a revision downward from the government’s original figure of 20,000. Officials are optimistic, however, that the number can be increased, with a further 1,000 slots due to be available today to key workers.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, told a Downing Street briefing last night that the testing target was “quite likely” to be met now that the website was working. Mr Hancock, the health secretary, is under intense political pressure to meet the self-imposed deadline at the end of the month. Officials judge that it is better to have the service oversubscribed than to have unused testing capacity.

Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, said that the 100,000 figure had not been based on his advice but acknowledged the need for more testing.

He admitted that contact tracing, which the government is planning to resume at large scale as a way of easing lockdown, might not have stopped in mid-March if testing capacity and manpower had been available.

Professor Whitty told MPs on the science and technology committee that the scale of infections meant there was little alternative to stopping contact tracing on March 13. “Our technical view collectively was it really wasn’t likely to add a huge amount at that particular point, given the resources we had,” he said. “If you did a mental experiment in which we had an infinite amount of testing, infinite numbers of people trained, we might have taken a different view but in any emergency . . . you deal with the tools you’ve got.”

The admission will add to scrutiny of the government’s pandemic planning after it emerged that it was warned last year of the risk of a coronavirus outbreak. A 2019 “national security risk assessment” leaked to The Guardian said that a novel coronavirus similar to Sars and Mers would probably cause “short-term localised disruption”.

Professor Whitty said that increasing testing was “very important” and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies was estimating the amount of testing needed to ease restrictions.

He said that the plan “includes greater testing within hospitals for people who don’t currently have symptoms, for example people who might be coming in for elective things, and greater testing in care homes. What we’re trying to do is get that basic number and then build on top of that what are the other things we could use it for, under a number of different ways of running the next stage of the epidemic, which is going to be a prolonged one.”

The prime minister’s spokesman said that 5,000 home-testing kits had been ordered within two minutes of the portal going live. Officials acknowledged a brief technical glitch when the site opened but said that it allocated 11,500 slots in drive-through swabbing centres before refusing new bookings. This number is to increase to 12,500 today.

Eligibility yesterday extended to more than ten million key workers and their families but it emerged that no checks were being carried out and people were able to declare themselves as essential staff. The spokesman said: “We expect the public to respond in good faith.”

On Thursday 28,532 tests were carried out despite capacity for more than 51,000. Officials say that demand from NHS staff had been lower than expected. Health and care workers have complained about lengthy trips to one of the 31 drive-through centres. This number is due to increase to 48, in addition to 48 “pop-up” mobile testing centres run by the army. By Thursday, 18,000 home test kits are to be sent out.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of the hospitals group NHS Providers, said: “Much more needs to be done to ensure that people can actually book tests. In our view, it is as important to focus on how testing capacity is delivered and made available as the number of tests completed each day.”

• Personal protective equipment for frontline care workers will run out in days due to delays in setting up an online ordering system, the Local Government Association has warned. It said that councils faced acute shortages with millions of gloves, gowns and visors needed to ensure the safety of carers. They face waiting a month for the government website to be set up.

Emily Holden  www.theguardian.com 

The number of people harmed by floods will double worldwide by 2030, according to a new analysis.

The World Resources Institute, a global research group, found that 147 million people will be hit by floods from rivers and coasts annually by the end of the decade, compared with 72 million people just 10 years ago.

Damages to urban property will soar from $174bn to $712bn per year.

By 2050, “the numbers will be catastrophic,” according to the report. A total of 221 million people will be at risk, with the toll in cities costing $1.7tn yearly.

When WRI first developed its flood modeling tool in 2014, the predictions felt “like a fantasy”, said Charlie Iceland, director of water initiatives at WRI.

“But now we’re actually seeing this increase in magnitude of the damages in real time,” Iceland said. “We’ve never seen these types of floods before.”

Floods are getting worse because of the climate crisis, decisions to populate high-risk areas and land sinkage from the overuse of groundwater.

The worst flooding will come in south and south-east Asia, including in Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and China, where large populations are vulnerable.

The effects will be less dire but still increasingly serious in the US, where the risk is highest for coastal flooding. The US ranks third among countries with the most to lose from urban coastal flooding in the next 10 years, after China and Indonesia.

Coastal flood damage in the US will soar from $1.8bn in 2010 to $38bn in 2050, with half the country’s exposed population in just three states – Louisiana, Massachusetts and Florida.

What are now once in a lifetime floods could become daily occurrences for most of the US coastline, according to a separate study.

That’s because hurricanes are stronger, seas are higher and rain patterns are changing, all because of global heating caused by humans.

River floods will get worse in the US, but those damages will stay about the same, as large investments will be made in flood protection.

Another bit of catch-up.

Jonathan Watts  www.theguardian.com 

Greta Thunberg has urged people around the world to take a new path after the coronavirus pandemic, which she said proved “our society is not sustainable”.

The Swedish climate activist said the strong global response to Covid-19 demonstrated how quickly change could happen when humanity came together and acted on the advice of scientists.

She said the same principles should be applied to the climate crisis.

“Whether we like it or not, the world has changed. It looks completely different now from how it did a few months ago. It may never look the same again. We have to choose a new way forward,” she told a YouTube audience in a virtual meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

“If the coronavirus crisis has shown us one thing, it is that our society is not sustainable. If one single virus can destroy economies in a couple of weeks, it shows we are not thinking long-term and taking risks into account.”

The teenage campaigner, who initiated the global school strike movement, was filmed at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm in digital conversation with Johan Rockström, the earth systems scientist and director of the Potsdam Institute.

He said there was a strong correlation between the pandemic and the environmental crisis: deforestation and the wildlife trade heighten the likelihood of viruses leaping the species boundary; air pollution increases human vulnerability by weakening respiratory systems; and the expansion of air travel allows epidemics to spread more quickly. “The scientific evidence shows they are interconnected and part of the same planetary crisis,” he said. “We are living beyond the carrying capacity of the planet so we are putting human health and the health of nature at risk.”

The lockdown has reduced emissions and hurt the oil industry, which is the biggest source of the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet to dangerous levels. But the two speakers stressed the virus should not be seen as an environmental panacea because it has brought immense human suffering, provided only temporary respite and distracted from campaigns, research and international meetings that aimed to find a smoother transition to a clean economy.

The key lesson from the pandemic, they said, was the need for governments to pay more heed to scientific warnings.

“We have underestimated the shocks. We need to build more shock absorbers into the system,” Rockström said. “Around the world, people are recognising the uncertainty and are being cautious. Also regarding the climate, we cannot know for certain how far we can push up global warming. So I hope that we come out of the pandemic with the recognition that science shows: it’s not worth taking the risk … I believe that something new is coming from the ashes of the corona crisis. We’ll rise out of this, but not by bouncing back to the old world.”

He said there was more support now for green new deals in Europe and South Korea and for China to go beyond the economy when setting priorities.

Neither speaker mentioned the US president, Donald Trump, Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, or other leaders who have either dismissed the risk of the pandemic or used it to relax environmental protections and health standards in the name of economic recovery. But Thunberg alluded to these dangers.

“During a crisis like this there is a big risk that people try to use this emergency to push their own agenda or their own interests. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she said. “I cannot stress enough how important it is that we are active democratic citizens so a crisis like this doesn’t slide in the wrong direction.”

Elsewhere, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, marked Earth Day by declaring the pandemic to be the biggest threat the world had faced since the second world war, though he said the environmental emergency was deeper.

He said post-pandemic recovery should focus on six goals: the creation of clean, green jobs; taxpayer support for sustainable growth; an economic shift from grey concrete to green nature; investment in the future rather than the past with an end to fossil fuel subsidies; the incorporation of climate risk into the financial system, and international cooperation.

A new opinion poll suggests there is strong support for this view. Sixty-six per cent of Britons believe the climate is as serious a long-term crisis as Covid-19 and 58% agree it should be prioritised in the economic recovery. The survey of 14 countries by Mori found even higher levels of support in China, Germany, France, India, Italy and Japan. Even in the least enthusiastic nations – the US and Australia – a majority supported green priorities in stimulus programmes.

Public opinion has shifted dramatically in the past two years as a result of increasingly grim climate studies and high-profile campaigns by groups such as FridaysForFuture and Extinction Rebellion. Big strikes and marches have been postponed but Thunberg vowed they will be back once it is safe to return to the streets.

“We have to adapt. That is what you have to do in a crisis,” she said. “People are thinking we will get out of this and then we will push even harder.”

A bit of catch-up news with implications on the whole of the newly announced road building programme. 

Matthew Taylor  www.theguardian.com

Campaigners have launched a legal challenge to try to prevent billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on a huge road-building programme, which they say breaches the UK’s legal commitments to tackle the climate crisis and air pollution.

Lawyers acting for the Transport Action Network (Tan) have begun legal proceedings against the Department for Transport calling for the road-building scheme, which was confirmed last month by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to be suspended.

They argue that ministers did not take into account the government’s legally binding commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. They also say the government has not considered whether the £27bn programme is in line with its obligations under the Paris climate agreement.

The move follows a successful challenge to the proposed third runway at Heathrow. In that case the court ruled that the planned airport expansion was illegal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

The road-building programme is thought to be the UK’s largest and would lead to thousands of miles of new roads being built across the country in the coming years – with at least 50 projects due to be under way in the next two years.

The UK’s road network and its wider transport infrastructure are crucial in the country’s efforts to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The transport sector is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only one to have increased its emissions in recent years.

Chris Todd, Tan’s director, said it was impossible to take the government seriously on the threat posed by climate change when it is “set to burn billions on the largest ever roads programme”.

“This massive roads programme has become like a juggernaut that’s out of control, that no one can stop. We now have no choice but to go to court to prevent an unfolding disaster.”

Tan wrote to the secretary of state following the court of appeal’s Heathrow decision in February requesting a pause in the road-building programme to allow time to reconsider its environmental effects. It said it did not receive a response to that letter. Lawyers have sent a pre-action protocol letter that is the official start of legal proceedings.

Rowan Smith, from the solicitors Leigh Day, which is pursuing the case on behalf of Tan, said the group was raising “legitimate concerns” at a time when it was widely established that the climate emergency “demands a move away from a continued reliance on fossil fuels towards more sustainable transport”.

The government’s climate change adviser has joined calls for ministers to reconsider its road-building plans.

Chris Stark, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, said it would be better for the economy and the fight against climate breakdown for the billions of pounds allocated for road-building to be invested in broadband – especially in light of the coronavirus crisis, which has led to many more people working from home.

“The government mustn’t be investing in anything likely to increase carbon emissions,” Stark told the BBC. “I expect that video-conferencing will become the new normal and we won’t return to travelling the way we did. I would spend the roads budget on fibre. You would get a huge return to the economy with people having better connections. You would save people’s time and increase their productivity.”

His comments echo those of the head of the motoring organisation the AA, who said this month that government money would be better invested in broadband than roads.

In response to the legal challenge, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport defended its plans. “The second road investment strategy is consistent with our ambitions to improve air quality and decarbonise transport,” they said. “We have received the letter and will respond formally in due course.’’

This news on the scaling down of the Exeter Nightingale comes soon after news that the Dyson contract to provide 10,000 ventilators is to be cancelled. This in turn follows cancellation of the formula 1 team’s BlueSky ventilator a couple of weeks ago, the specification of which turned out not to be suitable for Covid patients. Not forgetting the millions wasted on testing kits that didn’t work well enough.

The scaling back on the perceived need for intensive beds is good news, bearing in mind the South West has the lowest ratio of such beds to “normal” needs. Looks like the older population took social isolation and distancing seriously and acted on the instructions quickly. 

The Government has been desperately trying to play catch-up, having been caught unprepared for the scale of the pandemic. So it’s not surprising that we should see surplus in some things while experiencing shortages in others. 

In retrospect, the article “The UK needs more ventilators and fast. But the maths doesn’t add up” illustrates the confusion at the time.

Howard Lloyd www.devonlive.com

The NHS Nightingale hospital which was supposed to be built in Exeter to help combat the coronavirus pandemic will no longer be at Westpoint Arena, it has been announced.

It was decided that a site the size of Westpoint was not required due to the lower-than-expected transmission rates of COVID-19 in the South West.

Instead, NHS Nightingale Exeter will be at a ‘former Homebase store’, where construction will begin in the next few days.

The home improvement retailer’s branch in the Sowton area of Exeter closed in September 2018, although it has not yet been confirmed that this is the site in question.

A statement from the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group said: “The NHS’ newest hospital will now be built on the site of a former retail unit on the outskirts of the city.

“Earlier plans had indicated that this hospital would be based at Westpoint.

“However, having carefully considered the value which Westpoint brings to the community north of Exeter, and the disruption it could cause to its everyday operations, we have used the time available to us to consider alternatives.

“We are very grateful to the charity which runs Westpoint for their help, hard work, and kindness in welcoming us over the last ten days as we considered our decision.”

DevonLive revealed at the start of April that Westpoint had been chosen for the new hospital – news which was confirmed by the Government a week later.

The temporary hospital was due to be the smallest of the seven temporary hospitals being set up across the country.

The British Army was helping the NHS and private contractors to prepare the site which was meant to be ready by early May and provide up to 400 extra beds.

“Westpoint have been nothing less than exemplary and were the first to heed the call,” said Dr Michael Marsh, Regional Medical Director for the NHS in the South West.

“They understand why we have made the decision and support us in doing the best we can for patients.”

The new hospital will be a regional facility providing care and treatment for patients from Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset.

The NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group said that the ‘lower than expected COVID-19 transmission rates in the SW combined with updated modelling of care needs also shows that a smaller site would be a better use of resources, and enable the NHS in the South West to use the site for a longer period of time if needed’.

Conversion of the former Homebase store will begin over the next few days, with help from the army and contractors BAM Construct Ltd, who also built the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate.

The NHS Nightingale Exeter brings the total to seven confirmed NHS Nightingale Hospitals in a matter of weeks, with others in Bristol, Birmingham, Harrogate, London, Manchester and Sunderland.

“Step down” hospital, “Recovery” hospital – sounds like a substitute for the old fashioned cottage hospital to Owl.   

Richard Whitehouse www.cornwalllive.com

A patient staying at one of three hotels in Cornwall which have been designated as ‘step down’ hospitals cried tears of joy in appreciation for his carers.

The St Moritz Hotel near Rock has joined The Carnmarth Hotel in Newquay, Penventon Hotel in Redruth to be used as recuperation centres.

They are hosting patients who are recovering from operations or Covid-19 but are not strong enough to return home.

By taking them to the hotels the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has been able to free up beds at Treliske.

Cornwall Council chief executive Kate Kennally said yesterday: “These are working really well with people staying at the hotels being very appreciative of the care and support they are receiving.

“One guest broke down in tears of joy. He stayed in a room overlooking Fistral Beach and the sun was setting over the sea. He broke down in tears and expressed his appreciation to the health and care he was receiving.”

Ms Kennally added that through this scheme and others being carried out between the council and health care providers “our partnership has never been so strong”.

In a statement it was confirmed that the St Moritz Hotel has been designated as a recuperation centre until mid June for patients from north Cornwall.

All three hotels are using specialist staff provided by Cornwall Council-owned company Corserv and the NHS in Cornwall.

St Moritz proprietor Hugh Ridgway said: “With the hotel closed and in abject frustration at being unable to do anything two weeks ago I got in touch with Scott Mann, MP, and offered St Moritz as an emergency facility for the NHS. The response was immediate. Numerous inspections later we are delighted to be open and receiving our first patients as a ‘step down hospital’.

“Operated by Cornwall Care we are already in awe of their staff – their dedication and professionalism is quite humbling.

“I hugely thank the St Moritz staff who have volunteered to help this enterprise with all the support services that are required – three meals a day, administration, housekeeping, maintenance etc. It is a great thing they are doing to help prosecute the war against this dreadful virus.

“Ministers were warned last year the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and its potentially catastrophic social and economic consequences in a confidential Cabinet Office briefing leaked to the Guardian.”

“The recommendations within it included the need to stockpile PPE (personal protective equipment), organise advanced purchase agreements for other essential kit, establish procedures for disease surveillance and contact tracing, and draw up plans to manage a surge in excess deaths.”

“Having plans for helping British nationals abroad and repatriating them to the UK was also flagged as a priority.”

Nick Hopkins  www.theguardian.com 

Ministers were warned last year the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and its potentially catastrophic social and economic consequences in a confidential Cabinet Office briefing leaked to the Guardian.

The detailed document warned that even a mild pandemic could cost tens of thousands of lives, and set out the must-have “capability requirements” to mitigate the risks to the country, as well as the potential damage of not doing so.

It comes as the UK’s hospital death toll from coronavirus heads towards 20,000. Less than a month ago, the medical director at NHS England, Prof Stephen Powis, said the country would “have done very well” to stay below this grim milestone.

Marked “official, sensitive”, the 2019 National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) was signed off by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, as well as a senior national security adviser to the prime minister whom the Guardian has been asked not to name.

The recommendations within it included the need to stockpile PPE (personal protective equipment), organise advanced purchase agreements for other essential kit, establish procedures for disease surveillance and contact tracing, and draw up plans to manage a surge in excess deaths.

Having plans for helping British nationals abroad and repatriating them to the UK was also flagged as a priority.

All of these areas have come under relentless scrutiny since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with the government accused of being too slow to react to the crisis. It is now under sustained pressure to provide answers about what was done nationally and locally to provide the support that planners have long called for, amid growing fears ministers were “caught out” by the crisis and have been playing catchup ever since.

The Cabinet Office document, which runs to more than 600 pages, not only analysed the risk of a viral flu pandemic but also specifically addressed the potential for a coronavirus outbreak (the earlier Sars and Mers were both coronaviruses), though it regarded this as potentially much less damaging. In reality, the UK is dealing with a hybrid of the two, raising further questions about whether ministers were quick enough to recognise the dangers and were able to rely on whatever preparations were already in place.

Drawing on previous security assessments and health risk registers, the document implicitly warned ministers they could not afford to be complacent. “A novel pandemic virus could be both highly transmissible and highly virulent,” it said. “Therefore, pandemics significantly more serious than the reasonable worst case … are possible.”

The government declined to provide specific details of the preparations that had been made prior to the pandemic, but said it would be unfair to say they were “starting from scratch”, pointing to planning exercises carried out in recent years.

“This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice,” a government spokesman said.

“The government has been proactive in implementing lessons learned around pandemic preparedness. This includes being ready with legislative proposals that could rapidly be tailored to what became the Coronavirus Act, plans to strengthen excess death planning, planning for recruitment and deployment of retired staff and volunteers, and guidance for stakeholders and sectors across government.”

But one source with knowledge of the Cabinet Office document said the UK had not properly focused on the pandemic threat, and had been caught flat-footed.

“The really frustrating thing is that there were plans. But over the last few years emergency planning has been focused on political drivers, like Brexit and flooding.

“There was a national plan for dealing with a pandemic that should have been implemented. But who took control of that? And who was responsible for making sure that plans were being made at a local level? The truth is, I am not sure anyone was doing this.”

The source added: “We have been paying for a third-party fire and theft insurance for a pandemic, not a comprehensive one. We have been caught out.”

The shadow Cabinet Office minister, Rachel Reeves, said the revelations were “alarming … and raised serious questions about the government’s planning and preparedness for a coronavirus-style pandemic”.

She demanded her opposite number, Michael Gove, give a statement to parliament on Monday to explain “whether this report was read and what actions were taken”.

The NSRA sets out a series of potential reasonable worst case scenarios (RWCS) for the spread of a flu-like viral pandemic, which emergency planning experts regard as the benchmark for its preparedness in the current crisis.

It also included predictions that offer insights into how planners believe a crisis like this current emergency might evolve.

The document said:

• A pandemic would play out in up to “three waves”, with each wave expected to last 15 weeks … “with the peak weeks occurring at weeks 6 and 7 in each wave”.
• 50% of the population would be infected and experience symptoms of pandemic influenza during the one or more waves. The actual number of people infected would be higher than this, as there would be a number of asymptomatic cases.
• A pandemic of moderate virulence could lead to 65,600 deaths.
• The potential cost to the UK could be £2.35tn.
• Even after the end of the pandemic, it is likely that it would take months or even years for health and social care services to recover.
• There would be significant public outrage over any perceived poor handling of the government’s preparations and response to the emergency.

Whitehall sources concede that turning “plans on the page to real life” was always proving a challenge, but said that in some respects the Brexit planning had helped.

The government spokesman said its response to the emergency had protected lives and businesses: “Our response has ensured that the NHS has been given all the support it needs to ensure everyone requiring treatment has received it, as well as providing protection to businesses and reassurance to workers.”

But political pressure is mounting on the government. On Wednesday, the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, demanded ministers explain why “we were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment”.

In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Dame Deirdre Hine, who produced a report for government on the swine-flu pandemic, said she feared the government had not implemented the plans for a pandemic. “I think they have been complacent,” she said.

A very serious warning for all Owl’s followers:

The maker of Dettol has said its product should not be ingested “under any circumstances” after Donald Trump suggested tests should be carried out to see if COVID-19 patients could be injected with disinfectant.

Ian Collier News reporter news.sky.com 

In a statement, RB said since the US president’s remarks it had been asked if “internal administration of disinfectants” could be used to treat coronavirus patients.

“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).

“As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.”

Mr Trump made his remarks after one of his officials gave a presentation on the impacts of bleach and sunlight on coronavirus and how it reacts to different temperatures and surfaces, during Thursday’s White House task force briefing.

news.sky.com /story/coronavirus-trump-under-fire-for-suggesting-disinfectant-as-covid-19-treatment-11977958

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that has not been checked but you’re going to test it,” he said.

“And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that, too, sounds interesting

“Right, and then I see the disinfectant, it knocks it out in a minute, one minute and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or or almost a cleaning, ’cause you see it gets on the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.

“So it will also be interesting to check that so you’re gonna have to use medical doctors. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me so we’ll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it goes in and one minute, that’s – that’s pretty powerful.”

At one point, he turned to Dr Deborah Birx, the co-ordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, and asked her to speak with doctors “to see if there’s any way that you can apply light and heat to cure”.

“Maybe you can, maybe you can’t,” he said: “I’m not a doctor. I am a person that has a good, you know what,” he added while pointing to his head.

The president was already facing criticism for championing hydroxychloroquine as a possible cure for COVID-19, which has been shown to provide no benefit and possibly a higher risk of death.

Doctors immediately warned against the unproven idea, blasting it as “irresponsible” and “dangerous”, and said it could kill people.

.”..there is no official word to explain clearly why the Republic of Ireland, which has followed WHO advice, records a death rate a third lower than that in Northern Ireland, which follows UK advice. Such are the delusions of national character that too many members of the government, from the prime minister down, suffer from. People are dying. It is time to give up on the fantasies of British exceptionalism.”

Editorial  www.theguardian.com 

The Guardian view on following viral science: why did we go it alone?

If there is a simple way of showing how out of step this government is with the rest of the world on coronavirus, it can be found in the gap last week between the five criteria that Dominic Raab said the country must fulfil before the lockdown was lifted and the six tests the World Health Organization set. Missing from Mr Raab’s list was that health system capacities ought to be “in place to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”.

What divides these two approaches is the “science”, which is why claims of following it ring so empty. On one side we have those who believe that testing, tracing and the isolating of infected individuals is needed to defeat coronavirus. In this camp are public health experts such as Anthony Costello of University College London and Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary.

They have facts on their side. South Korea registered its first 10 deaths of patients with Covid-19 by 25 February, and by following the WHO’s advice Seoul had suppressed the epidemic within 22 days. Prof Costello says that by the time the UK had recorded its first 10 deaths, by 13 March, the government had stopped all testing and contact-tracing in the community. How has that gone? South Korea sees 17 new cases daily, while the UK records 5,000. These numbers convinced the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who on Thursday outlined his “test, track and trace” strategy, which would start “as the new number of cases begins to fall”.

On the other side are those who believed the UK ought to go it alone – with a response determined by mathematical models and control measures while waiting for the silver bullet of a vaccine. In this camp appeared to be Mr Raab, the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and his deputy, Jenny Harries, who condescendingly claimed South Korea’s outbreak was atypical and akin to controlling that found in a single care home. Sir Patrick Vallance’s promotion of “some kind of herd immunity” put him, as chief scientific adviser, at odds with public health doctors. The evidence suggests that was also the case for Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, who has long been entranced by computational modelling “fast enough for epidemic ‘war games’”.

Sir Patrick chairs the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which last month warned that “if interventions that are perceived to be effective [in other countries] are not applied [in the UK]”, then this would increase “the risk of public concern”. Sage recommended “a clear explanation as to why expected interventions are not being implemented”.

Yet there is no official word to explain clearly why the Republic of Ireland, which has followed WHO advice, records a death rate a third lower than that in Northern Ireland, which follows UK advice. Such are the delusions of national character that too many members of the government, from the prime minister down, suffer from. People are dying. It is time to give up on the fantasies of British exceptionalism.

East Devon Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk 

Residents are being urged to avoid having a spring declutter as recycling centres in East Devon and Exeter will only reopen when ‘it is safe to do so’.  

Nineteen facilities across the county were shut on March 24 after the UK went into coronavirus lockdown.

They include hubs in Exmouth, Sidmouth and Honiton, as well as Exton Road and Pinbrook Road in Exeter.

Devon County Council (DCC) said today it is looking to reopen recycling centres ‘as soon as it is safe to do so and [the]Government guidance permits’.

“Until that time residents are urged to avoid having a spring declutter or undertake home improvements that may create extra waste,” added the authority.

‘Please be patient’

Councillor Andrea Davis, cabinet member for infrastructure, development and waste, added: “It’s understandable that people have more time on their hands and want to keep busy, but it does push extra waste onto already stretched services, especially as recycling centres remain closed.

“We are looking to reopen these facilities as soon as it is safe and government guidance allows.

“Until that time I ask that people to please be patient and store excess waste or wait until restrictions are lifted. It would help keep collection services running smoothly.

“It’s easy to generate more waste and recycling while we’re at home and it’s great to see that most people a continuing to recycle as much as possible and keep waste to manageable levels under difficult circumstances.

“I want to thank everyone for doing their bit and for supporting the crews as they continue the important task of collecting our rubbish and recycling.”

East Devon support for refuse crews

Households across Devon have been thanked for their waste and recycling efforts during the pandemic.

Support for collection crews has included pictures and ‘thank you’ notes left on bins and outbreaks of spontaneous doorstep applause.

East Devon District Council said its refuse collection staff had been ‘cheered’ by a campaign to celebrate their hard work.

“A whole series of posters and messages have greeted the refuse collectors during their deliveries,” added a spokesperson.

“Your cheers for our staff have been much appreciated.”

Waste and recycling tips

DCC has issued the following advice to households:

• Your bin may be collected earlier or later than usual due to collection round changes. Find out what time your bin should go out here to avoid a missed collection;
•  If your car is parked on the street, make sure there is room for a collection vehicle (or emergency service vehicle) to pass;
• Keep hold of clean and wearable textiles and shoes until restrictions are lifted, when charities will urgently need your donations;
  Wash, squash and flatten your recyclables to increase the capacity of your recycling bin, box or bag;
• Start home composting your uncooked food, peelings and garden waste from as little as £13. Buy a compost bin here or build your own from pallets. Alternatively, leave grass cuttings on the lawn to return nutrients to the soil;
• Think about your food waste. Find recipes to effectively use up ingredients via our FREE online recipe book “Have your food and eat it”;
• Residents showing Covid-19 symptoms are advised to store recyclables for 72 hours before placing in the regular recycling container. Any personal waste, such as tissues, need to be double bagged and then stored for 72 hours before being placed in the residual waste bin.

More information is available on the Recycle Devon website.

Daniel Clark  www.devonlive.com

The majority of parks and gardens in East Devon are set to be reopened – but will close again if people don’t use common sense and abide by social distancing guidelines.

East Devon District Council last month decided to close parks to help people abide by social distancing measures following the Government’s lockdown announced.

The council added that the decision was balanced by the fact that East Devon is a rural district with good access to the countryside and open spaces.

But following the statement made by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Saturday, April 18, who said: “People need parks. That’s why I have made it clear to councils that all parks must remain open,” the council has reviewed its initial decision.

The cabinet have agreed that the majority of the district’s large or easy to access park sites should be reopened to the public, as soon as possible, but some small sites with restricted access/egress points will remain closed in order to support Government’s social distancing guidance

Cllr Geoff Jung, East Devon’s Portfolio for the Environment, said: “We believe we can safely re-open large parks sites, such as Phear Park in Exmouth, with access points, open borders or space that allow people to easily use the site for exercise while maintaining social distancing.

“We will re-open these sites by removing barriers and closure signage starting Thursday, April 23. It will take us a couple of days to complete this.

“This will mean that the majority of our parks will be open, giving residents ample green spaces within which to exercise responsibly. Social distancing signs will remain in place and we will remind the public to observe these measures.

“If people do not observe social distancing or congregate in our Parks, we may be forced to close them all again.

“So we are putting our trust in our public and asking them to use common sense, follow the two metre social distancing recommendations and generally take responsibility for staying safe.”

A council spokesman added that as it would be difficult for the public to maintain robust social distancing in the following sites, and so as not to increase the risk of viral transmission, these sites are to remain closed.

They are:

• Manor Gardens – Exmouth
• Gunfield Gardens – Exmouth
• Queens Drive Space – Exmouth
• The Glen – Honiton
• Connaught Gardens – Sidmouth
• Blackmore Gardens – Sidmouth
• Seafield Gardens – Seaton
• All play areas
• Outdoor gym equipment
• All skate parks

The spokesman added: “Due to restrictions in East Devon staffing levels, resulting from the virus lockdown, the council will not be able to maintain the parks and gardens to the same high standards as they were before closure.

“However, from a positive environmental perspective, East Devon has already started a programme of actively re-wilding areas, encouraging biodiversity and wildflowers and cutting grass less frequently and this will continue. Those using the parks for exercise can expect to see meadow length grass with access paths cut through it as a more prominent feature.

“The council will only be able to conduct visual walkover inspections of its sites as staff are focussed on maintaining core operations services, self-isolating or restricted from travelling due to health reasons.”

Further guidance on what people should do when accessing East Devon’s parks can be found at: https://eastdevon.gov.uk/parks-gardens-and-recreation/parks-and-gardens/coronavirus-information/

In a previous post discussing exit strategies and some of the strongly held views, Owl said “it might be wise to watch and see what happens in other nations, further down the path. (The USA will be an interesting wild-card to follow).” This now  proves to be the case as Georgia frees up the “land of the free”. An interesting experiment especially given strained Georgia’s starting point. 

Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Hannah Murphy in San Francisco April 21 2020 www.ft.com

Georgia and several other southern US states are moving to ease lockdown restrictions as early as this week, as sporadic protests erupt in other states over the strict measures governors have enacted to tackle coronavirus.

Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, said residents could visit gyms, hair salons, tattoo parlours and bowling alleys from Friday, and could then start going to movie theatres and restaurants from Monday.

Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s Republican governor, rescinded a ban on residents going to the beach and eased restrictions on retail outlets to let them reopen if they implement social distancing measures. Bill Lee, the Republican governor of Tennessee, said his stay-at-home order would lapse at the end of April.

Mr Kemp was one of the last governors to impose a lockdown and his move makes his state one of the first to ease restrictions. Georgia has not met the criteria outlined by the White House last week when it recommended that a state see a decline in cases for 14 days before starting to reopen.

The move was slammed by two Democrats — Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia legislature, and Keisha Lance Bottom, the Atlanta mayor — who are both possible running mates for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Ms Abrams said the decision was “dangerously incompetent”. Ms Lance urged Atlanta residents to continue to stay at home. Mr Kemp came under intense criticism earlier this month when he acknowledged that he had not realised that people who had no symptoms could still be carrying the virus.

The moves to open some states came as Facebook said it would remove pages promoting anti-lockdown protests that did not adhere to social distancing guidelines. The company took the decision as a spate of public rallies opposed to the coronavirus measures continued across the US. 

Facebook said it would take down content organising anti-quarantine protests if they sought to defy social distancing rules in US states. It has already removed content in California, Nebraska and New Jersey, but said events that include clear calls for social distancing would be permitted.

Small protests have erupted sporadically in recent days as a combination of far-right groups and supporters of President Donald Trump have targeted the governors of states, most Democratic-led, with the more severe lockdowns.

Several hundred people protested outside the Pennsylvania state capitol building in Harrisburg on Monday against lockdown measures introduced by Tom Wolf, the Democratic governor. Mr Wolf announced on Monday that the state’s stay-at-home order would be extended until May 8. 

Some of the protesters have been emboldened by Mr Trump, who last week urged followers in a tweet to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — all states with Democratic governors, such as Pennsylvania.

On Sunday Mr Trump refused to condemn the protesters despite the fact that many are not practising the social distancing guidelines that his own administration has recommended should remain in effect for now.

Mr Trump said they were “great people” who had “cabin fever” and that they had the right to protest, particularly because some of the governors, including Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, had gone too far.

As it enforces its policy, Facebook said it had contacted state officials to better understand the scope of their orders related to social distancing.

The social media company is battling to crack down on the false information and conspiracy theories related to coronavirus that are rapidly spreading on the platform. It also announced a new tool last week that informs users if they have interacted with dangerous Covid-19 misinformation on the platform.

At the same time, Facebook risks charges of censorship if it is seen to prevent political discourse — at a time when it already faces accusations of anticonservative bias. 

In Pennsylvania on Monday cars and trucks honked their horns as protesters, some holding placards that backed Mr Trump, waved American flags and called on Mr Wolf to ease stay-at-home restrictions.

The lockdown has been especially devastating to Pennsylvania’s economy, in part because Mr Wolf moved earlier than most governors to order the closure of non-essential businesses in his state to curb coronavirus. 

Pennsylvania has recorded almost 34,000 cases of Covid-19, the fourth-highest total in the country. The number of people who have died has hit 1,348, giving the rust-belt state, the fifth-highest death toll in the US.

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, who chairs the National Governors Association, questioned why Mr Trump was encouraging dangerous behaviour against the advice of his health experts. Last week Mr Trump introduced a plan to reopen the country that urged states to start resuming normal activity only after a 14-day drop in cases.

Mr Hogan on Sunday told the television news channel CNN that many of the states where the protests were occurring, including Maryland, had not yet hit that target.

“To encourage people to go protest the plan that you just made recommendations . . . just doesn’t make any sense,” Mr Hogan said.

“The understudy prime minister is exposing many of the structural flaws that characterise Boris Johnson’s government.” We also have an Opposition Leader who can forensically hold the Government to account. 

Editorial www.theguardian.com

Dominic Raab’s tenure as Brexit secretary in 2018 was short and fruitless. He negotiated nothing in Brussels and resigned in protest, as if the failure was not his own. It is worth recalling that record now because Mr Raab has temporarily risen to the highest office, which is higher than his capabilities should allow.

Acting as prime minister during Boris Johnson’s illness is an unenviable task. The stand-in did not take decisions he must now defend, and has no executive authority to fix mistakes. Mr Johnson’s absence can be felt as drift and incoherence, expressed most potently in confusion over coronavirus testing and supplies of vital medical equipment.

Keir Starmer raised both subjects in his Commons debut as Labour leader on Wednesday. On both fronts he exposed the void where Mr Raab must have wished he had answers. The foreign secretary floundered most under questioning on testing, where the rate lags far behind what would be necessary to hit the target of 100,000 per day by the end of this month. He attempted a sleight of hand, defending the government’s record in terms of elevated testing capacity, an easier metric and not what had initially been pledged. Mr Starmer’s efficiency in identifying and dismissing that trick bodes well for when it is Mr Johnson at the despatch box and not his understudy.

On equipment supplies, Mr Raab’s defence was propped up by two flimsy planks: first, that no country is managing without difficulty; second, that every decision has been taken in accordance with the best available scientific advice. If there was ever merit in those claims it has worn thin from overuse by ministers evading responsibility for the lethal consequences of their actions – and inaction. It is disingenuous and improbable to suggest that ministers have followed a technocratic template, impeded only by logistical challenges beyond their control. Political prejudice infiltrates most decisions in government and Mr Johnson’s Downing Street is one of the most ideologically driven, politically cynical administrations in British history. It is likely that medical expertise was heeded, given that no one in the cabinet had relevant qualifications, but the equivalent skills deficit in other areas has never stopped the prime minister from having a strong opinion and acting on it before. Brexit is a case in point, where decisions of national importance were routinely taken in disregard of advice from people with professional expertise in the relevant fields.

It is plausible that the scale of the coronavirus threat forced ministers to set ideology aside. The Treasury response demonstrates that much in its swift abandonment of orthodox Conservative fiscal policy. But it is also feasible that Mr Johnson and his team took longer than necessary to climb out of some ideological trenches because they had dug themselves in so deep. That lag might help clear up confusion surrounding an EU procurement scheme for medical equipment, which Britain either joined or did not join for reasons that mysteriously vary depending on whether it is a civil servant, a minister or Brussels accounting for events.

On Tuesday, a senior foreign office official told a parliamentary committee that the decision not to participate had been political. Hours later he “clarified” to the contrary, but his written retraction contained no clarification of facts. The truth will surely emerge one day, probably in front of a public inquiry.

Meanwhile, the episode reinforces the impression of a government that was ill prepared for a crisis that demanded competence more than rhetorical bluster, and is failing now to get sufficient grip and undo damage done. Partly that is a symptom of over-centralisation and reliance on the individual authority of the prime minister, whose focus is necessarily elsewhere. But capable ministers and a resilient administration would be compensating better for Mr Johnson’s absence. That they are not, that the whole system seems obviously adrift, running on bluster and improvisation, testifies to flaws. Mr Raab is obviously out of his depth. Sadly, it seems his painfully shrunken stature is an accurate measure of the government he currently leads.

The development of a smartphone app to help identify infection contacts (now being tested by RAF personnel) has long been trailed. This article suggests that similar preparations have not been made to conduct the low tech, but tried and tested, solution the rest of us have seen coming for week.

Charlie Cooper and Ashleigh Furlong www.politico.eu 

LONDON — Doctors and public health experts warn the U.K. faces significant logistical hurdles if it plans to use mass coronavirus testing and contact tracing to help ease its lockdown.

This comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock set out the government’s plans to roll out an army of 18,000 contact tracers in a matter of weeks. “This test, tract and trace will be vital to stop a second peak of the virus,” he said, during the daily press conference on Thursday.

Britain initially attempted to test those suspected of having the virus and trace their contacts early in the epidemic but then abandoned the approach, with health experts saying mass testing was “not appropriate” for the U.K.

Hancock has since pushed to rapidly increase the U.K.’s testing capacity, which currently stands at just under half of the target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

However, while welcoming the shift in strategy experts warned that the U.K. is starting from a low baseline to deliver on the plan, following a period in which public health budgets have been cut by over £700 million in real terms between 2015-17 and 2019-20.

Those drafted in will also, experts said, have to have full criminal records checks in place and require at least some training to effectively conduct the necessary telephone conversations required of a contact tracer.

“The challenge of all of this is that we’ve had a decade of cuts to public health,” said Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “And the question is whether we can deliver this and I suspect that has been a consideration of the very beginning.”

“We shouldn’t underestimate how complicated it is,” he added. “We need to be quite careful about getting this right.”

Importance of safeguarding

Of the initial 18,000 people drafted in to help, over 3,000 will be clinicians and public health specialists. Civil servants and local government officials are also set to be called on to help,, according to the Times. The newspaper reported the government hopes to have the scheme up and running by May 7, with Hancock saying that the contact tracers would be trained “over the coming weeks.”

While much emphasis has been placed by government on the development of a new contact-tracing app by the “NHSX” tech innovation unit, experts say that simple manpower is also key to the strategy.

However, one retired public health doctor, who worked in health protection but asked not to be named, warned that the skilled environmental health officers trained to carry out such work were in short supply. “They have absolutely decimated public health in local authorities,” said the doctor.

If new recruits from the ranks of national and local government officials, or even volunteers, are to be used, they will also require training for the task of contact tracing, said Gary McFarlane, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s Northern Ireland director.

“You can make this sound very simplistic, but in reality, it’s actually quite complex, he said. “The critical thing here is the answers that are actually given, because the answers need to inform where the questioning needs to go. It’s about following an investigative path.”

However, the public health doctor disagreed. “It’s not rocket science,” the doctor said, explaining that a contact tracer simply needs to take a contact through their average day, finding out who they have seen and where they went.

But that doesn’t mean the process will be straightforward, with both McKee and the public health doctor raising issues around safeguarding. This could require all contact tracers to have Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, which highlights if someone has a criminal record and usually take four weeks or more. A similar requirement is already in place for volunteers working with the most vulnerable within the NHS’s new volunteer service.

“You must not let people loose on contact tracing who have not been appropriately vetted,” the public health doctor said. “It will just open the floodgates for potential abusers to volunteer and find their way into kids’ networks and vulnerable people’s networks.”

Government officials have been contacted for comment.

‘Alternative’ to full lockdown

According to public health experts, community testing, contact tracing and isolating is one of, if not the most, effective strategy governments could deploy to control the coronavirus epidemic; a “community shield” that could avert the need for repeat lockdowns, according to Anthony Costello, a former World Health Organization director of mother, child and adolescent health.

“We allowed the epidemic to surge by stopping a national strategy for community case finding, testing, contact tracing and isolation on March 12 and still haven’t restarted it,” he told POLITICO. “This virus will come back within weeks of lifting the lockdown. Without a community shield we shall not pick up new cases and outbreaks early, and we shall be left with either repeat lockdowns, or allowing the virus to spread.”

The U.K.’s longest-serving health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has also been an outspoken advocate of reintroducing the so-called test, trace, isolate strategy.

“If you have a system where anyone who has COVID systems can call [NHS phone line] 111, get a test immediately, we then track everyone they’ve been near and test and isolate them if necessary, you have an alternative to a lockdown,” he told POLITICO last week. “Which is why the shops, restaurants, offices are open in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.”

Hunt, who now chairs the House of Commons health committee, has highlighted World Health Organization advice that lists the ability to track and trace every single new COVID case in the community as one of six conditions for easing lockdowns.

“It’s a huge job, you’ve got to put teams in place,” he said. “The obvious thing I think would be to start in parts of the country where we have relatively low numbers of infections like Yorkshire and Cornwall and see whether you can get that mass community testing in place.”

www.markpack.org.uk 

In the run-up to the 2019 general election, there was a lot of media and political excitement about an apparent surge in electoral registration and why that might be good news for Labour.

My scepticism at the time, based on a little maths, was rather an outlier from what others were saying, based in particular on the likelihood that a high proportion of the registration applications would turn out to be duplicates. That is, people already on the register (or not qualified to be on the register) were putting in applications that would therefore not result in actual additions to the electoral register.

The Electoral Commission’s report into the 2019 general election, out this week, now gives us some data on that:

A large number of duplicate applications added unnecessary pressure for EROs and their teams. Data from EROs shows that many applications were submitted by people who were already correctly registered:

• Approximately one in three applications they received before the deadline was a duplicate
• In some areas the proportion of duplicate applications was even higher
• Only around half of all applications led to an addition to the register

That scepticism was justified then.

Overall, this story is a good example of how the truth often travels much more slowly than the news, in this case coming out many months after all those news stories. That’s a theme I expand on in my book, Bad News: what the headline’s don’t tell us.

The wisdom of the Government’s instinct to use privatisation solutions thrown into doubt. 

Hospitals sought to take over the operation of a flagship government coronavirus testing centre from the accounting firm Deloitte after severe failings in the service led to the test results of NHS staff being lost or sent to the wrong person, the Guardian can reveal.

Juliette Garside  www.theguardian.com 

The drive-through centre, at Chessington World of Adventures, in Surrey, was among the first in what will be a network of about 50 regional facilities, trumpeted by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, as key to delivering on the government promise of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April.

On Thursday the government insisted it was on track to meet the target, increasing the tests from less than 10,000 at the start of April and just 23,000 tests on 14,000 people on Wednesday.

Deloitte was hired to help scale up testing nationally, and is understood to be handling logistics across a number of the sites, working alongside other private firms such as Serco and Boots.

Deloitte says it does not run or manage the testing centres, but supports the Department of Health.

In revelations that raise concerns over the rapid outsourcing of testing during the pandemic, chief executives at hospitals in south-west London are understood to have had talks about removing Deloitte and running the Chessington drive-in testing centre themselves.

The alarm was sounded when doctors and nurses complained that test results never arrived, or that they had been sent someone else’s results. In other cases, the test centre, which is about 12 miles south-west of central London, was unable to ring through with the diagnosis because of a failure to record correct phone numbers.

In an email written in early April, and seen by the Guardian, the chief executive of Epsom hospital said: “Deloitte who have been commissioned by the Department of Health directly for this are not running this as well as we would like … [We] are asking whether we can take over the running of the Chessington centre because we really need it to work much better than it is.”

It is understood that the request to remove the firm was made in the first week of April, but that it was set aside after performance improved.

However, Epsom hospital stopped sending staff to Chessington 10 days ago after finding a more convenient alternative, it said. Staff are now swabbed at work and the samples sent to the laboratory at St George’s hospital, south London for analysis.

Epsom could soon be able to do the analysis itself, having ordered four machines made by a company spun out from Cambridge University, which can complete the process in 90 minutes.

The Chessington centre’s problems appear not to have been entirely resolved. A paramedic for the south-east coast ambulance service, who asked not to be named, said he had been tested along with a group of colleagues on 3 April. They were still waiting to hear from Chessington.

“None of us from my place of work, tested on that Friday, have had our results,” he said. “We were told our samples were taken to a lab in Southampton. It’s three weeks since the test and I don’t think I’m ever going to get the result. No one’s been in touch other than my managers to say they’re chasing it.”

The paramedic questioned the involvement of Deloitte, which specialises in management consultancy, tax and accounting but has little experience in running public services. “I’m not sure what is essentially an accountancy company can bring to this.”

A doctor at Epsom hospital, who was among the first to be tested at the end of March while self-isolating at home with symptoms, said she was still waiting to hear; after making enquiries she was told Deloitte could only release information to the person being tested, and not the organisation referring them. She has since been tested by her hospital.

Asked to comment, Daniel Elkeles, who runs Epsom, and its sister hospital, St Helier, in Carshalton, Surrey, said there were “clearly teething problems at Chessington at the start of this contract”.

“We are now assured that those teething problems are fixed and that the service is reliable. But it’s much more convenient for our staff to be swabbed [at the] Epsom and St Helier sites, and for us to send the swabs to St George’s for testing. This means our staff don’t have to travel to Chessington and also means the facility has more capacity for other parts of the health and care system.”

Normally, government contracts over a certain value are advertised publicly and awarded after a competitive tender.

However, it is understood that the health department appointed Deloitte without competition, under an obscure piece of legislation introduced in 2015 which ministries have been told they can use during the pandemic to avoid lengthy tendering processes.

A Deloitte spokesman said: “Deloitte, alongside many other public and private sector partners, is supporting DHSC (the Department of Health and Social Care) to help accelerate and scale testing capacity for the national Covid-19 testing programme.”

DHSC said that only a small number of people had experienced delays in getting their test results in Chessington and that most of those had now been delivered. It said it was continuing to investigate the remainder.