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Covid-19: Local public health teams being denied access to data that could help them trace cases

BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2883 (Published 17 July 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;370:m2883

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Re: Covid-19: Local public health teams being denied access to data that could help them trace cases

Dear Editor

It is criminal negligence. Negligence by the Central Government.

The task of following up contacts has been handed over to the directors of public health. But they have not been told who the carriers are and where they live.

In addition, there is negligence by the Central Government in failing to say bluntly to the leaders of religious denominations that they must observe the limits on congregations. Blackburn is a recent example. A mosque in Blackburn saw 250 mourners. You cannot fine a mosque, a church, a temple. Will the priests responsible receive a rap on the knuckles?

Then there was the rave near Bath - in a disused RAF station. Again you cannot fine the RAF.
The Police claimed that there were too many people, too many drunks, too many stoned by drugs.
Surely the police could have videoed the participants as evidence?

I ask: has the Prime Minister decided that life should be now free from restrictions?

Competing interests: No competing interests

19 July 2020
JK Anand
Retired doctor
Free spirit
Peterborough, England