covid and therefore tough measures to keep r below one but also required more research and support from the nhs who found it quite difficult because it was a new disease and because of its nature presenting in many different ways, they found that long tarmac difficult to categorise at first and so with simon stephens will work together to bring forward clinics that could look across the range of conditions that are mostly gathered under the term long covid. i cared a lot about this for personal reasons as well as professional. we did not need to sign off from the centre, we just got on with it. do you happen to know, notwithstanding the early days of 2020, the campaign about long covid wasn t launched until october, do you know why there was that potential lag in the communication side of the debate? side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially bleak, was essentially bleak, understandably the clinicians found it
would be a global outbreak. tiitj h there was a 50 50 chance of would be a global outbreak.- there was a 50 50 chance of being would be a global outbreak- there was a 50 50 chance of being a global outbreak and not 100% chance. i m not exactly sure of when he first said it to me, but this is also why i wanted cobra to wake up whitehall to this threat. you also why i wanted cobra to wake up whitehall to this threat. whitehall to this threat. you must have appreciated, whitehall to this threat. you must have appreciated, mr whitehall to this threat. you must have appreciated, mr hancock, i whitehall to this threat. you must l have appreciated, mr hancock, but having have appreciated, mr hancock, but having been have appreciated, mr hancock, but having been told have appreciated, mr hancock, but having been told by have appreciated, mr hancock, but having been told by the have appreciated, mr hancock, but having been told by the chief- having been told by the chief
those two cases were on the 30th and sist those two cases were on the 30th and 31st of january and there would almost certainly be more. the central point according to these minutes is that government had a plan to deal with illness. yes. you didn t in fact, plan to deal with illness. 133 you didn t in fact, within the department of health and social care, commission until the 10th of february the plan, the battle plan as you describe in your statement, or the action plan as it was published on the 3rd of march. and therefore, what plan was it that you were referring to cabinet colleagues too, to deal with the illness? firstly, we had the pandemic flu strategy set out in 2011, but by this point we had a whole series of different plans for expanding different plans for expanding different areas. so we had a plan for the expansion of testing within the hd. that plan didn t go fast enough and i had to take serious action to change that in the middle of march. we had a plan for