In April 2021, responding to a Scottish Government ‘admission’ that they had failed in “understanding the social care sector well enough” and “didn’t take the right precautions” in the early part of the pandemic, Scottish Labour leader and fully-qualified dentist, Anas Sarwar, rehearsed his unconvincing anger on behalf of anyone who he and his lads can convince that the Scottish Government has let them down in a health setting.
Readers will remember his fondness for shouting the names of dead children at the First Minister, in TV debates.
In April, neither of us seem to have spotted research, posted in March but still, it seems, under peer-review, further debunking his whole:
It’s basic common sense that you don’t send Covid-positive patients into a care home where you are housing the most vulnerable people to the virus.
The researchers, in true scientific mode, ignored any common sense, basic or otherwise, as they sought the truth of the matter. Here’s what they found:
In regression analysis, after adjusting for care home size, we found no significant association
between hospital discharge and subsequent increases in care home case numbers (odds ratio: 0.99, 95% CI 0.82, 1.90). Risk factors for increased cases included care home size, care home resident density, and provision of nursing care.There is growing evidence in the UK that the risk of transfer of COVID-19 from the high-risk hospital setting to the high-risk care home setting during the early stages of the pandemic was relatively small.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.18.21253443v1.full.pdf
In my own basic common sense language, large private care homes with residents crammed in for maximum profit, minimally staffed, heavily reliant on agency staff carrying the virus between sites, on insecure contracts and so afraid to take time off and with inadequate infection control, training or PPE, killed many of their residents.
Sarwar knows that but is not angered by it because he does not get angry about things that he cannot use against the SNP. I’m angry.
Returning to that statement above where the Scottish Government apologises for not ‘understanding the social care sector well enough’, what does that mean? The evidence of infection and death in many, especially the larger corporate homes, reveals that it means a failure to suspect they’d be so incompetent at infection control despite longstanding guidelines, having massive income and paying little in wages or taxes. You’d think that would make a Labour politician really angry. I suppose Sarwar is a Starmerite so, maybe not.
Talking-up Scotland 
“apologies (sic) for not ‘understanding the social care sector well enough’,” is a phrase taken out of the context of a wider answer. The pandemic was new to the human race and, in the two years or so, we have learned a huge amount that we did not know before the pandemic started or in the early stages of it.
The ones who have not learned are the unionist politicians and their friends in the media. They cling to the belief that if something goes wrong, then if we find someone to blame, the problem will go away.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Sarwar is a detestable figure !
It would appear that under ”Scottish” Labour there were no deaths in Scottish hospitals or Care Homes etc…
We lived in a utopia where no one died unnecessarily , where Labour politicians monitored every patient in every hospital ward and personally checked the cleanliness standards across the NHS , where Scottish ” Labour politicians created such a health paradise that people were flocking to Scotland to live in this socialist heaven – NOT !
The ”Scottish ” Labour leaders escaped censure and scrutiny because the Scottish press chose not to hold them to the standard that today’s unionist politicians and media demand of the SNP .
A totally impossible standard that NO health system in the world could match !
And when they have achieved praiseworthy targets these are ignored or even dismissed !
Sarwar needs to realise that most Scots view the performance of the Scottish NHS far higher than HIS performance as the ‘leader’ of a party with terminal necrotising fascilitis .
LikeLiked by 4 people
James, you are so right. I remember a public meeting when the Health Board (then Argyll & Clyde) proposed closing the A&E facility at the local Vale of Leven Hospital. One of the attendees was, of course, Jackie Baillie who assured the meeting that the closure was for our own safety, that the Health Board could not be assured of having enough doctors of enough seniority to supervise a standalone A&E facility at the Vale. Can you imagine if that had happened under the present SG’s watch? What, not enough Doctors? Well train more? Find them! How can we manage without A&E at the Vale?
Well we would manage much the same as we have done for the last 15 -20 years. We phone for an ambulance and pray to whoever our God is that the M8 isnt screwed up and they get us to the RAH in time. That is the gift of the Labour/Lib Dem govt to us. But hey, it’s for our own safety, our own good.
And of course, as time went on, services were stripped out. Why have an acute coronary care ward when no acute coronary patients are brought to you. Just one example – having an A&E is sine qua non for the fully functioning hospital.
But of course since 2007, oor Jackie has changed her tune. To get herself re-elected she has played the Hospital (and Faslane) like a virtuoso violinist (well that and romancing the Helensburgh Tories to vote for her last time round). No scare story too scary (or actually lacking in evidence). One time she ran a campaign because she claimed local GPs were not drawing the midwife led maternity service at the Vale to the attention of their patients. So, she wrote to all the “local” GPs with a questionnaire, which she claimed showed only about 25% of “local” GPs did this. BUT, what she didnt let on about were two things. First she hadnt just written to GPs in Helensburgh, Dumbarton and the Vale (the natural areas where you would expect women to opt to go there) but Clydebank, Bearsden and Milngavie as well (I mean, if a woman lives in Milngavie, does she even know where the Vale Hospital is, never mind a quick trip down Crow Road and through the Tunnel). Not only that, most GPs in these three areas did the smart thing and dumped Jackie’s questionnaire in the bin – but they were still marked up as not having brought the midwife led unit to their patients’ attention. It was like the Whiskas ad many years ago when the manufacturers claimed that 90% of cat owners said their cats preferred Whiskas. Actually most of them had said they didnt have a clue, and they had to change the ad to “90% of cat owners who expressed a preference said …” But such attention to detail, not to say the truth, dont bother oor Jackie because, well they dont support the narrative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spot on in every respect!
LikeLike
If only the English government was endowed with ‘basic common sense’ and maybe many of the 130,000 people who died of Covid due to their disaster capitalist approach would still be alive. Maybe also the absolute catastrophic Brexit imposed onto Scotland would be averted, but no, the bottom line is Scotland faces economic ruin because of the lack of English governments’ basic common sense!
Still, good attempt at distraction from that Sarwar!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Illegal wars killing and maiming millions. £Trns cost which could have been better spent. Improving the world. Financial fraud and tax evasion. Labour causing the biggest migration crisis leading to an illegal excuse for Brexit. Labour are a disgrace.
Trident a total waste of monies. Leaving people in poverty. The McCrone Report hidden for years. The banking crash. The revenues and resources taken from Scotland to fund London S/E. Iraqi, Dunblane and Lockerbie kept secret for 100 years,
LikeLike