In an extensive analysis posted on the website www.appeasement.org, activists use a timeline to demonstrate how British authorities ignored the threat to the nation after the first cases of the disease were reported in China in late December.
The text, which compares Johnson to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, famous for his failed policy of appeasement with Adolf Hitler, states that like his predecessor, the current Conservative ruler ignored the storm that was forming, minimized the threat, and then failed to respond as he should have.
By the time he came to realize his mistake, it was too late, thousands of lives had been unnecessarily lost and the economy was facing a protracted confinement, adds the group founded in late 2018, in the heat of the Brexit.
It recalls, for example, that Johnson missed the first five meetings of the government’s emergency committee where the disease was addressed, delayed closing schools and places of entertainment, and allowed public events such as the Cheltenham horse festival to take place, where nearly a quarter of a million people gathered between 10 and 13 March.
It also notes that the UK refused to participate in the European programme to provide protective equipment for health workers, ignored scientists’ recommendations to avoid shaking hands, and defended the controversial theory of herd immunisation.
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