Not in the Covid Inquiry reporting today – How First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Scottish Government kept excess mortality here at just over half the UK average despite the delay in devolving responsibility and Johnson’s callous inertia – saving thousands of lives

Professor John Robertson OBA

I’m grateful to @amaccj for reminding me of this and for the link to the source.

When the final assessment is made, we need to set the scene with these facts:

  1. The World Health Organisation had pressed the panic button warning national governments to act on the 30th of January 2020.1
  2. Throughout February and March PM Johnson missed 5 Cobra meetings which discussed the need for a response.2 Pandemic response was still a reserved matter to the UK Government.
  3. In the first week of March, FM Sturgeon called for an immediate lockdown but PM Johnson refused in the interests of business.3
  4. PM Johnson reluctantly called the first UK lockdown on 23 March 2020.4
  5. The pandemic response strategy was devolved to Scotland on 25 March 2020. 5

Two years later, in February 2022, as the pandemic receded, the simple consequences in terms of mortality in different parts of the UK can be see in this table from the September 2023, UK Covid 19 Inquiry report6:

Other than the isolated South-west of England, Scotland had the lowest mortality rate of the 4 nations, even lower than Northern Ireland sheltered by its sea gap.

15% more died in Wales, suggesting a further 2 000 Scots might have died had their pandemic experience been managed by the Welsh Labour Government.

18% more died in England, suggesting a further 2 400 Scots might have died had their pandemic experience been managed by the UK Conservative Government.

How do we explain this? Faster and longer shutdowns; greater trust in FM Sturgeon’s guidance and consequent greater compliance with face masks and higher vaccination levels; quicker care home vaccinations after Health Secretary Freeman accelerated this, contrary to the UK strategy; more frequent care home inspections in the period prior to the pandemic?

Sources:

  1. https://www.who.int/news/item/27-04-2020-who-timeline—covid-19
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/michael-gove-fails-to-deny-pm-missed-five-coronavirus-cobra-meetings
  3. https://x.com/pjwoodside/status/1271449299721883649
  4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-covid-19-lockdowns-on-crime-demand-and-charge-volumes/the-impact-of-covid-19-lockdowns-on-crime-demand-and-charge-volumes-in-england-and-wales#:~:text=23%2F03%2F2020,buying%20food%20or%20medical%20reasons).
  5. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/coronavirus-act-2020
  6. https://t.co/vHHPbEUoY3

5 thoughts on “Not in the Covid Inquiry reporting today – How First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Scottish Government kept excess mortality here at just over half the UK average despite the delay in devolving responsibility and Johnson’s callous inertia – saving thousands of lives”

  1. The “Scottish” media want only one conclusion from the Covid Enquiry – Nicola Sturgeon was to blame for everything.

    At the question sessions at the end of the daily media conferences she and her colleagues held, the media questioning was always hostile and accusatory. She had pushed Johnson into action against the wishes of business, particularly the ‘inhospitality’ industry so she had to be attacked. She had shown up Johnson for the arsehole he is, so she had to be attacked. When Jackson Carlaw showed solidarity with her policies, the Tories replaced him with Johnsonian thug Douglas Ross.

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    1. ” At the question sessions at the end of the daily media conferences she and her colleagues held, the media questioning was always hostile and accusatory ” is forever burned in my memory also – It became obvious from some that they had been instructed to ‘Get Sturgeon’….

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  2. Glad you have done this as people on FB calling for Nicola to be jailed. One has to wonder what steps they would have taken to protect Scotland from a relatively unknown virus.
    Personally, I appreciated her clear and coherent daily broadcasts as did my friends in England who preferred to listen to Nicola than Boris Johnson

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  3. As we on this website know only to well, the M.S.M is almost completely hostile to any Independence minded Scottish Government. It doesn’t matter the issue, their job is to brainwash, lie, and generally be economical with the truth. And that’s being reasonable to them. That’s never going to change, and even after we have achieved Independence, the propaganda will continue. Why? Because nearly all of these media organisations, mostly owned by non-doms, will try to blame England’s ills, and there are going to be plenty, on the fact that Scotland had the temerity to leave the mother of nations, the U.K. What I look forward to most is being able to sell our renewables to them, instead of the wholesale robbery that is taking place with increasing regularity.

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