James O'Brien's reaction after 16,000 coronavirus cases were missed from daily figures
5 October 2020, 11:03
James O'Brien's reaction after 16,000 coronavirus cases were missed
This was James O'Brien's reaction after a technical glitch meant nearly 16,000 cases of coronavirus went unreported.
A staggering 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were left out of the UK daily case figures, Public Health England have said.
They were then added in to reach Saturday's figure of 12,872 new cases and Sunday's 22,961 figure.
The glitch has meant that those who tested positive has since been informed, however those in close contact have not.
James said, "September shouldn't have surprised anybody, schools go back, students go back, and here we are looking at yet another error. This time round of course by the time the second spike, the appalling failure to have a test and trace system by the first spike would have been fixed by Dido Trotter."
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Comparing the Government to the wheelers and dealers in Only Fools and Horses: "16,000 just sort of disappeared. Dropped off the radar, was a technical glitch, Rodney. Technical glitch. What's a technical glitch? Don't know, don't ask any questions, no income tax, no VAT, no money back, no guarantee."
"Who's answerable for this?"
James pointed out, "Dido Harding got a new job last week on top of the ones she's already got. Qualifications for all this? She had a bit of a nightmare at Talk Talk a few years ago."
He reflected that the daily testing toll is not a reflection of how widespread the infection is but of how well the daily testing system is working.
"It's meaningless if there's 16,000 that got lost down the back of the sofa then all of last week's numbers are utterly meaningless. And yet we're trying to frame policy and public discourse according to them," James said.
Last week Government scientists Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty forecasted their worst case scenarios and then the figures released were not as bad.
"All of the weirdos start going the figures have come down, Whitty and Vallance are talking nonsense. Then 16,000 new ones arrive!" James exclaimed.
