Heard of Exercise Cygnus? No, well don’t worry because it’s been buried so deep by this government that not many people have.
Breaking ranks, the Torygraph (sic) have published a damning expose of this government cover-up which shows that they knew almost four years ago that the NHS would not be able to cope with an epidemic like the Coronavirus.
A drill, code-named Exercise Cygnus, took place in October 2016 and involved all major government departments, the NHS and local authorities across Britain and showed gaping holes in Britain’s Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) plan.
They found that there was not enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for the nation’s doctors and nurses. The NHS was about to “fall over” due to a shortage of ventilators and critical care beds and morgues were set to overflow. They would also be made aware that they would need to build in additional support for disabled people, older people and those with underlying health issues.
The only significant difference between the test drill and the pandemic we now face is that Cygnus was assumed to be the H2N2 influenza virus, while Covid-19 is a coronavirus. Both spread rapidly and kill by causing acute respiratory illness.
There is one other difference. While the real Covid-19 epidemic is being played out in public, the report detailing the findings of Exercise Cygnus have never seen the light of day. A senior former government source with direct involvement in the exercise said they were deemed “too terrifying” to be revealed.
Others are more critical. A senior academic directly involved in Cygnus and the current pandemic said: “These exercises are supposed to prepare government for something like this – but it appears they were aware of the problem but didn’t do much about it.
Description of cartoon for those people using screen reading software
The setting is an office used for Exercise Cygnus on 29th October 2016. Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) MP and Prime Minister Theresa May are stood in front of a large black board. On the board is written ‘Exercise Cygnus – pandemic drill critical findings’. There is also a list which reads ‘not enough PPE for health workers, not enough ventilators, lack of critical beds, no support for disabled and crap benefit system’. Theresa May is holding a piece of paper with ‘more cuts to NHS’ printed on it. IDS is saying to her: “If it were to happen just think of all the useless eaters and bed blockers we’d get rid of!”
Crippen Cartoons 