Britain’s budget deficit could easily exceed £200 billion in the coming fiscal year as #coronavirus  crisis hammers the economy

It's sickening really

@jasonhickel  but apparently we can discount this entire article because 22 years ago the author (as @TheLancet  editor) published some inaccurate research linking MMR vaccinations to autism - research which he subsequently retracted. 🤔

Once this coronavirus crisis is over, a reckoning awaits the architects of austerity — The @ObserverUK  editorial

Dr Ana Giménez of Infanta Leonor hospital. “Hundreds of people are sitting in chairs or lying on the floor… All Madrid's hospitals are overwhelmed... We don’t have masks, gloves, or waterproof gowns. We have nothing. We are naked against the coronavirus”

The reverberations of the government's approach to running the NHS over the past decade and its tardy response to the #COVID ー19 crisis will be felt for decades. The current shortages of ICU beds, virus testing kits, PPE, ventilators are symptomatic of... @ObserverUK [ editorial]

Here's the full transcript from @CBCNews  (Canadian radio)

UK death toll from Covid-19 is up 20.5% on yesterday. 209 more people have died, bringing total fatalities to 1,228, according to @DHSCgovuk  . That's a slower rate of increase than yesterday's 34.2% rise. 19,522 have now tested positive in the UK - up 9%

Until earlier this month most western politicians were complacent in the extreme. Despite the warnings from experts, very few were giving a moment's thought to the risks posed by pandemics. via @DrSophieHarman 

Bad #coronavirus  takes, part 781. Here's one from the Daily Telegraph's assistant editor, Jeremy Warner.