Coronavirus - Take two - Action!

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I always find it amusing when the MSM report something like this. I mean, the idea of a 'Track & Trace' system
might have been a waste of time, but it certainly wasn't a waste of money. Certain people profited from it and a
lot of behavioural information was gathered on how humans can be managed.

COVID-19: NHS Test and Trace failed in its 'main objective', highly-critical report from committee of MPs finds

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee says that Test and Trace was "allocated eye-watering sums
of taxpayers' money" and despite setting "bold ambitions" it has "failed to achieve them despite the vast
sums thrown at it".

'NHS Test and Trace has failed to achieve its "main objective" of helping break chains of COVID transmission and allowing
people to return to normality despite being given an "eye-watering" amount of money, a highly-critical report from MPs has
said.

According to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the programme's outcomes have been "muddled" and a number of its
goals have been "overstated or not achieved". Test and Trace was developed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
to test the public and trace the contacts of positive coronavirus cases.

But its performance has been criticised in the past, including by the PAC.

The MPs said in an initial report in March that despite having access to "unimaginable resources", Test and Trace could not
produce "clear evidence" it had reduced the spread of the virus. Since the virus emerged, Test and Trace has been given £37bn
[$509 billion] -a sum equivalent to 20% of the entire annual budget of the NHS.

This is a particular focus of the committee's second report into Test and Trace, with the MPs saying that the programme's "continued
over-reliance on consultants is likely to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds". The report says Test and Trace has failed to
reduce its reliance on expensive contractors, who are paid an average of £1,100 per day.

The MPs also bemoan the fact that there is yet to be a "flexible" approach to using laboratories, something that "risks wasting public
money". According to the committee, Test and Trace has been focused on getting programmes up and running and "paid less attention
to ensuring these programmes delivered the benefits they promised".

Uptake of its services is described in the report as "variable" and "only a minority of people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms get a
test", with some vulnerable people much less likely to take a COVID test than others.

Test and Trace is due to be moved into the new UK Health Security Agency, a development the MPs say should be used to set out a
proper long-term strategy" for the programme. Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the committee, said: "The national Test and Trace programme
was allocated eye-watering sums of taxpayers' money in the midst of a global health and economic crisis.

"It set out bold ambitions but has failed to achieve them despite the vast sums thrown at it.

"Only 14% of 691 million lateral flow tests sent out had results reported, and who knows how many took the necessary action based on the
results they got, or how many were never used. "The continued reliance on the over-priced consultants who 'delivered' this state of affairs
will by itself cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.

"For this huge amount of money we need to see a legacy system ready to deliver when needed but it's just not clear what there will be to
show in the long term. "This legacy has to be a focus for the government if we are to see any value for the money spent."...'

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