England: ‘Shambolic’ failure with 15,841 Covid cases not reported for over a week

Arkitect

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Some more news from merry ol' England; the green and pleasant land of promised unicorns, sunlit uplands, forelock tugging voters, fox hunting nobs and prison ships for refugees…

Guardian
"The government is unaware of how many potentially infectious contacts of coronavirus patients were not traced after it was revealed that nearly 16,000 Covid cases went unreported in England, a minister has said.
“I’m afraid I just don’t have that information,” Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, told BBC1’s Breakfast programme.

Labour has called the error, blamed on computing problems, “shambolic”. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, was expected to make a statement to the Commons later on Monday.
The failure resulted in 15,841 positive test results being left out of Public Health England’s daily figures between 25 September and 2 October, meaning 22,961 cases were published on Sunday, after 12,872 on Saturday.
The error also meant the information was not passed on to data dashboards used for contact tracing, PHE said.

Coffey said it was not yet known how many people as a result had not been contacted to be told they should self-isolate after coming into close contact with one of the unreported positive cases."


To put it in perspective:15,841 is more than Germany, a country of 83,000,000, has in a week! And we somehow mislaid them… fell off a desk somewhere?
Well done Tories, well done… this is exactly how you manage a global epidemic that has laid waste to your economy and taken the lives of thousands.
 
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And it goes on…

England Covid cases error means 50,000 contacts may not have been traced

1601900597520.png


What is the use of a Test and Trace app (even if you gave the contract for running it to your buddies Serco/Deloitte/Harding, eh Pfeffel?) if you let this sort of thing happen? It is an error with exponential consequences.



I’m sorry to see that the incompetence isn’t limited to just the United States.

I have no idea what they mean by “computer problems”. Like what, somebody saved something in the wrong folder?
Yup. Wouldn't surprise me. Incompetence personified in the picture above.
 

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So it appears the missing 16,000 was due to the Tories' World Beating™ Track and Trace System using an Excel Spreadsheet, yes, people, an Excel spreadsheet.
Plain old vanilla .xls to manage the data of hundreds of thousands of Covid positive people.

"There are many unsettling things about this but perhaps the most unsettling is that this process - with data sellotaped together - is at the very apex of Britain's COVID-19 management system."
Link

So they basically cut and pasted latest info into the existing spreadsheet and then… oops… million row max reached, the rest just fell off the bottom.

And these are just the basic errors we know about.
How many more Johnson Brexit Government SNAFUs are there?

We here in Blighty are so far up shit creek without a paddle.

I envy all Americans who can vote in November and get rid of your current scum.

We on the other hand have to wait until at least 2024 before we can turn the tables. That is if the voting population kick them out.

Meanwhile, we are stuck in Brexit with no hope of return to the EU in my lifetime.

Jesus wept.
 
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lizkat

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Meanwhile, we are stuck in Brexit with no hope of return in my lifetime.

The worst of it for us and for future public servants --in both USA and your side of the pond-- is that successor adminstrations will have to cope with the dire prospects and white hot anger of the populace... and busted treasuries. We don't even know the half of it yet. Saw a piece today w remark of a small town banker suggesting the next 9 to 24 months will bring down the various overhangs of the USA's Paycheck Protection Program and assorted other defer-the-disaster programs. Meanwhile these guys in office will be off to some very faraway and sunny isles elsewhere, if they're lucky and can find a few such options.
 

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The worst of it for us and for future public servants --in both USA and your side of the pond-- is that successor adminstrations will have to cope with the dire prospects and white hot anger of the populace... and busted treasuries. We don't even know the half of it yet. Saw a piece today w remark of a small town banker suggesting the next 9 to 24 months will bring down the various overhangs of the USA's Paycheck Protection Program and assorted other defer-the-disaster programs. Meanwhile these guys in office will be off to some very faraway and sunny isles elsewhere, if they're lucky and can find a few such options.
It is appalling.
As you say those responsible will be far away and washing their hands of all responsibility.

Sometimes, my reasonable optimism just deserts me.

Ah well, nearly wine o'clock here.
 

lizkat

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It is appalling.
As you say those responsible will be far away and washing their hands of all responsibility.

Sometimes, my reasonable optimism just deserts me.

Ah well, nearly wine o'clock here.

[ Lunchtime here, and the desire to carb out never leaves me these days. I avoid buying snacks or things like potstickers when I have groceries delivered and then end up creating them from scratch like an idiot. So far there's still the excuse of "well there are leaves to rake up so I'll work off the calories." I won't, but that doesn't keep me from the very devil's work in the kitchen. I should put up on the fridge door one of those unflattering photos of Trump on the links, to offer me a last chance to rethink things before starting a meal prep. ]

I do wonder sometimes if Trump has looked into which countries with a nice climate and no extradition treaty with the USA might like to have a golfing resort established near a beach. He has problems with the law that have nothing to do with his incompetence as a US President... not to say I know anything of BoJo's issues outside his job.
 

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I do wonder sometimes if Trump has looked into which countries with a nice climate and no extradition treaty with the USA might like to have a golfing resort established near a beach.

Of all Trump's dictator buddies who might offer him safe haven Putin ticks most boxes, the others may be too susceptible to Coups and "elections".

I wonder if Putin would do him a deal on a Dacha in the Crimea? Mediterranean climate, even sub tropical zones. Winters are milder than most other areas of Russia (well, thats damning it with faint praise).

Alan Bennett did an excellent play about Anthony Burgess in Moscow. I think a play/film with the Trumps in exile in Russia has potential for a modern masterpiece.

Of course there are always the Saudis shimmering mirage like in the background.

[ Lunchtime here, and the desire to carb out never leaves me these days. I avoid buying snacks or things like potstickers when I have groceries delivered and then end up creating them from scratch like an idiot. So far there's still the excuse of "well there are leaves to rake up so I'll work off the calories." I won't, but that doesn't keep me from the very devil's work in the kitchen. I should put up on the fridge door one of those unflattering photos of Trump on the links, to offer me a last chance to rethink things before starting a meal prep. ]

Ah carbs… Twice a year for me.

Easter — well, what is Easter without Hot Cross Buns?
I don't miss the Easter chocolate (especially the cheap chocolate) as I eat enough 85 — 100% every day.
But, fresh home baked Hot Cross Buns… Cannot resist.

Christmas… yeah, well, the list is just endless and unavoidable so I just give in.
And so I stagger in to the New year hung over and lying on the bed, sucking in my expanded waistline to fasten my jeans…

I have taken to sipping a nice glass of something during class. It helps. A lot.
I'll second that. I swear a glass of wine helps my old brain.

I am giving my German a go — No Deal Brexit beckons and I'm not giving up on my EU dreams! My husband is German, but a useless teacher. 🤣 Far too direct (well that'll be Sagittarius for you.)

I started with Michel Thomas, completed the first course. And that got me through vacations and family visits. (Though they speak Bayerisch mostly… ack).

Now I read German newspapers, watch some TV (not sure if Drag Race Germany counts though 🤔) and making progress with Unlocking German with Paul Noble.
Wir werden sehen…
 

Alli

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I am giving my German a go — No Deal Brexit beckons and I'm not giving up on my EU dreams! My husband is German, but a useless teacher. 🤣 Far too direct (well that'll be Sagittarius for you.)
Ah, but German wine! My German is limited to the single course I took as an undergrad, which was helped along by so much of the family speaking Yiddish when I grew up. But I’m ready to take a wine tour to Germany. The hell with France and Italy.
 

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Wines from Alsace, anyone?

While I adore white Burgundies, I am more than partial to several of the wines from Alsace.

@Arkitect: Your posts in The Other Country about last Easter's hot cross buns were an absolute delight to read; do feel free to share them here.

And, I well remember that excellent - actually, exquisite, TV show, "An Englishman Abroad", based on Alan Bennett's play - "An Englishman Abroad" - where Alan Bates was superb as Anthony Burgess, and Carol Browne played herself (again, superb).

I remember how I watched it with my mother - she loved that sort of clever, intelligent, thoughtful, understated, witty, yet barbed, bitter-sweet and yes, poignant show, the kind of show that represented the best of British TV drama.

Every word was beautifully crafted, - that last scene was wonderful - ("Mum is the word; from Maidstone to Moscow, mum is always the word."): The scenes were superb, the acting sublime, the story unforgettable (because based on a true story), and the production costs next to nothing (comparatively speaking).
 

lizkat

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Always one to exacerbate topic drift, here I go: In my sophomore year at school, I lived in one of the off campus "language houses" reserved for students who would pledge to speak in the residence only a given language they were studying. I chose the German house, mostly to avoid the 2nd year dorms but also because the place bordered on the unused part of the village cemetery, a swell place for then illicit ale parties held on old blankets spread out over the evening dewfall on the grasses.

I was only taking German 101, mind you, but I managed to persuade the Bach-ophile house manager that my [asserted] familiarity with church German from JSB's cantatas would qualify me for life in the Deutsche Haus. She laughed and said in English "yeah I get it, I like the woods near the cemetery too, for bird watching. We didn't have all the same songbirds back in Germany when I was a kid."

On the topic... I try to keep up somewhat w/ Brexit in the FT and the Guardian, and end up thinking the US is luckier than the UK in one respect at least. Most of us in the USA are not having to worry about yet unknown effects of covid-19 on our lives and at the same time wonder how the hell Brexit will finally and very specifically settle out over our kitchen tables. On the other hand lots of US citizens are working in the UK or EU, and so do wonder exactly how Brexit may directly affect --or cancel-- their livelihood abroad.
 
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