Warrington has seen a huge rise in case since it went back to Tier two a few weeks before Xmas. Pubs packed, restaurants packed, shops packed. It’s no surprise
Yes I have been tracking that and posting the numbers here every night. Almost every borough in Merseyside is now through the roof also. Not just Liverpool and Wirral - the two I post data on here every evening.
In fact some smaller Merseyside boroughs have had huge pop score rises in past couple of weeks. And Knowsley - which WAS the worst in England 3 months or so ago but got things under control is now rocketing upwards to the top of the worst infected list and has just entered the 7000s for Pop Score - something no borough that small ever should. Halton and St Helens are in big trouble too.
This pattern across Merseyside has been very clearly building for weeks and the government simply has to have seen it happen. Indeed it is almost certainly why they finally acted. But the truth clearly is they hesitated to roll back from their message of rewarding Merseyside for doing such a good job - an argument that is not as clear as they allege that it is down to the wider testing. We know that because GM never got this and fell almost immediately after Merseyside to what soon became even lower levels than they did.
But the narrative sold was Merseyside did what we asked - it worked - as a reward they got tier 2. GM rebelled - said no - and look at them - stuck in the highest tier for months.
They did that not for scientific reasons as most people believe but to prove their argument about the tiers and mass testing. And the tiers have now come and clobbered Merseyside in exactly the way we saw in here and was frankly6 obvious so I cannot believe the government and their advisers did not too.
Which leaves big questions that journalists SHOULD be asking but seemingly as yet are not. Because they too I suppose largely follow what they are told and use week old data and are constantly chasing a virus that if you leave be for a week can go out of control.
If I was not following this data myself I would not know these things either. But the scientists directing the government surely have to be aware. I do wonder why none saw coming in Cheshire and Merseyside what was very very obvious if you paid any real attention to the data in the NW over the past 6 months.
Heads will roll over this. And should do. Because lives have been lost to stubborn ideology and nobody should ever just accept that.
