{"id":1040607,"date":"2021-11-21T14:43:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T19:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1040607"},"modified":"2021-11-21T14:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T19:43:42","slug":"no-plan-watchdog-says-uk-govt-was-underprepared-for-a-pandemic-like-the-chinese-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-plan-watchdog-says-uk-govt-was-underprepared-for-a-pandemic-like-the-chinese-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"No Plan! Watchdog Says UK Govt Was &#039;Underprepared&#039; for a Pandemic Like the Chinese Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-plan-watchdog-says-uk-govt-was-underprepared-for-a-pandemic-like-the-chinese-coronavirus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1040607&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1179184343-640x335-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">A report on the United Kingdom\u2019s response to the Chinese coronavirus crisis has found that the government was \u201cunderprepared\u201d for such a pandemic, stating that there were no \u201cdetailed plans\u201d to deal with a coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n<p>The National Audit Office (NAO) \u2013 the UK\u2019s independent spending watchdog \u2013 found<span>&nbsp;that the British government did not have the structures in place to effectively deal with an emergency such as the one brought on by the Wuhan virus.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/report\/the-governments-preparedness-for-the-covid-19-pandemic\/\">report<\/a> states that the government failed to set out an overarching level of risk that they were willing to accept within pandemic scenarios. Additionally, the report found that the level of risk the government found acceptable was inconsistent, shifting early on in the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The NAO wrote: \u201cLike many other governments across the world, the UK government was underprepared for a pandemic like COVID-19. It will need to learn lessons from its preparations for and handling of whole-system risks, which will include making judgements on what level of preparations is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UK government and devolved administrations, along with the emergency services and other local responders, have clear responsibilities for identifying, assessing, preparing for and responding to emergencies, as well as supporting affected communities to recover,\u201d the report&nbsp;said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cFor whole-system risks, the government needs to define its risk appetite to make informed decisions and prepare appropriately so that value for money can be protected.\u201d the NAO continued.<\/p>\n<p>This criticism echoes a similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2020\/07\/24\/uk-government-didnt-listen-its-own-advice-failed-prepare-coronavirus\/\">review<\/a>&nbsp;last year from the Public Accounts Committee, which detailed how major economic schemes, such as the furlough scheme, were never war-gamed, pre-planned, or even considered before the crisis.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"7.1052631578947\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">UK Government Didn\u2019t Listen to Its Own Advice and Failed to Prepare for Coronavirus: Report <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Js9bBozDc1\">https:\/\/t.co\/Js9bBozDc1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1286593040514252800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The NAO report also criticised the pandemic plans that were in place prior to the COVID crisis.<\/p>\n<p>While there were plans in place, they centred around either influenza viruses or \u201cemerging high-consequence infectious disease[s]\u201d, with high death rates such as Ebola or MERS, and as such were not applicable to less-lethal coronaviruses.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAlthough the government had plans for an influenza pandemic, it did not have detailed plans for many non-health consequences and some health consequences of a pandemic like COVID-19,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>The auditor also found that many of the plans that were in place were not adequate to even deal with the scenarios they were created for, stating: \u201cA review of pandemic planning arrangements, carried out by a cross-government working group in February and March 2020, rated 82 per cent of plans as being unable to meet the demands of any actual incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The conclusions apparently back up&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2021\/05\/26\/we-are-absolutely-fed-parliament-covid-inquiry-reveals-uk-woefully-unprepared-for-emergencies\/\">previous claims<\/a> made by Dominic Cummings, the former Chief Advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, on the alleged inadequacies within multiple plans to deal with national emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>Detailing his experiences in emergency preparations, Cummings highlighted how he was told by government advisors that the plan for solar flares was \u201ccompletely hopeless\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Cummings told the Parliamentary committee investigating Britain\u2019s pandemic response that should a solar flare occur, \u201cthen we\u2019ll all be in a worse situation than COVID\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;National Audit Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nao.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/The-governments-preparedness-for-the-COVID-19-pandemic-lessons-for-government-on-risk-management.pdf\">report<\/a> did find that one shining light during the pandemic, haling the \u201csignificant benefits\u201d gained by preparations made for Brexit, which the NAO claimed enhanced the crisis capabilities of certain government departments.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"7.2880434782609\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2018We Are Absolutely F****ed\u2019 \u2013 Parliament Covid Inquiry Reveals UK Woefully Unprepared for Emergencies <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9gR4IBQinP\">https:\/\/t.co\/9gR4IBQinP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1397598685916246023?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A report on the United Kingdom\u2019s response to the Chinese coronavirus crisis has found that the government was \u201cunderprepared\u201d for such a pandemic, stating that there were no \u201cdetailed plans\u201d &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}