Sturgeon & Swinney – Devoid of spirit and character in a crisis
The Sturgeon and Swinney led Scottish Government’s crisis management of the coronavirus pandemic was modelled on a singular desire to prove to the world that they were strong, decisive leaders of a Government totally independent from Westminster. In that respect they will, one day be held to account by the Scottish public.
Actions at the start of the pandemic
A study of events, which the Scottish government chose not to publicize was conducted by a team of scientists at Edinburgh University and revealed that the death rate in Scotland could have been reduced by about 80% with earlier action. (around 2,000 deaths) if lockdown measures had been introduced two weeks earlier in Scotland in response to a spate of coronavirus infections at a business conference in Edinburgh.
Events of note – The first confirmed coronavirus case, in Tayside, was announced on 1 March 2020.
But the outbreak began at the Hilton Carlton Hotel, in Edinburgh on 26 and 27 of February 2020, at a conference for the sportswear giant Nike, attended by more than 70 employees from all over the world. One of the delegates from abroad had the virus and infected at least 25 other delegates, (8 of whom were resident in Scotland).
Nike acted timeously by closing its UK stores and worldwide and instigating enhanced measures, including contact tracing and increased cleaning and disinfection processes in their stores and offices, and reported that all its infected delegates had recovered.
Scottish Health authorities were fully aware of the outbreak by 2 March 2020, but the public were not told about it.
The Scottish government confirmed health authorities were alerted to the potential outbreak on 2 March 2020 and said that the 8 cases resident in Scotland had been identified, their close contacts had been traced and public health authorities were satisfied there was no further infection risk.But a guest who had been staying at the hotel during the conference said he had been in close contact with numerous Nike delegates and he had not been contact traced by anyone from the Scottish health service to tell him about the risk.
Well aware the virus had been in Scotland since at least late February, the Scottish Government did not ban mass gatherings until 16 March 2020, and did not go into lockdown until 23 March 2020.
25 March 2020- Scottish Government sets up it’s advisory panel
The leader, Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of public health at Edinburgh University said there had “definitely” been more than enough information about the coming pandemic for action to have been taken much sooner. Adding: “We should have been acting by mid-February 2020. We could see that this was not easily a virus to be contained.”
Professor Dame Anne Glover, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and former chief scientific advisor to the Scottish government, said: “Mistakes have been made and that has resulted in lives being lost.”
A team of epidemiological scientists at the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor Rowland Kao (using figures published by the National Records of Scotland, (reporting that a total of 2,795 people had died with a confirmed or suspected case of the virus) modelled what might have happened to Scotland’s death rates had the lockdown been imposed around 2 weeks earlier. The model, allowing for uncertainty, predicted the death toll would have been around 577 – about 80% lower than the actual total.
Deputy first minister John Swinney’s view
Responding to the findings. He said: “I think what the figure represents is the retrospective application of a model to an earlier date from when lockdown started so I don’t think the conclusion is particularly surprising, but what we have to look at is the scientific advice that was available to us at the time. The Scottish government acted “promptly and swiftly” on the basis of the scientific advice available and in some respects, such as the ban on large gatherings, was ahead of this advice.
Scottish political journalist Ben Wray, commented: “when the death tolls are tallied up and compared internationally, Scotland is going to look to be very far from a star performer.”
caltonjock 
Article includes the words “But a guest who had been staying at the hotel during the conference said he had been in close contact with numerous Nike delegates and he had not been contact traced by anyone from the Scottish health service to tell him about the risk.” Why? Could it be because the contact details of any guest are utterly confidential and any such info released to any org other than with a court order sought by Police Scotland would have left the Hotel open to being sued by guest in question. There would have been no point in obtaining a court order as the time taken would have obviated the purpose of the request in the first place, apart from journo’s obtaining the details via FoI requests. Do please consider ALL implications in these investigations.
Ian White
Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
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But the health authorities claimed that all persons present in the hotel and at risk had been traced, contacted and briefed (tested) which was not the case.
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