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John Ashton
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Blinded by Corona: Excellent.' Jon Snow Kindle Edition

by John Ashton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 225 ratings
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A gripping view of our fight against corona
Professor Ashton has deep practical understanding of the science of public health - a discipline invented in Britain - as a former Director of Public Health. In this jargon-free fly-on-the-wall tale he sets the UK government's measures to deal with COVID-19 from January against two centuries of home-grown knowledge. How do the government's experts and the UK's reliance on web-based solutions such as Test&Trace measure up against the past, for example the 2008 Swine 'Flu epidemic?
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  1. Print length
    255 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Gibson Square
  5. Publication date
    November 11, 2020
  6. File size
    836 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08HGRJF7S
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gibson Square (November 11, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 11, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 836 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 255 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 225 ratings

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John Ashton

John Ashton

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
225 global ratings

Top review from the United States

E-Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2020
Verified Purchase
There is a lot of historical information about epidemics in the past and how COVID-19 compares to them and what we can do with that knowledge. It has made the news less of a ping pong match of she said, he said. I can recommend it.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

AMANDA FIFE
5.0 out of 5 stars the truth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2023
Verified Purchase
I was on the front line in an intensive care unit. There is nothing in this book that I could disagree with from my own experience and concerns at the time. I also learned more that I did not know.

Politicians should read and learn from this book!
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DidsburyChris
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2021
Verified Purchase
My old friend, colleague and boss John Ashton is in great form with this excoriating polemic against the UK establishment’s response to the COVID pandemic. His passion, experience, humanity and understanding of public
health ring out from the clearly written pages.
Is he always scrupulously fair to those he criticises? Probably not. Does he recognise his own biases and acknowledge them? Sometimes. Does he clearly reference his assertions so that we can judge the evidence for ourselves? No.
What he definitely does do is provide a overwhelmingly compelling critique of the negligence with which the national public health system in the UK has been treated in recent decades and of the dithering and general
Incompetence exhibited in the management of the early stages of the pandemic in the UK, the weakness of the advisory systems and the devastating impact of that on us all.
I will value this book as a record of how living and working though the early part of the 2020 pandemic felt to someone like me in the NHS trying to do my best on a day to day basis and watching tv coverage and reading press reports with growing confusion about what was happening. Why were obvious public principles of outbreak management not being followed and why was the long established network of public health directors and public health teams not being mobilised to do the obviously essential local hands on work? John clearly and persuasively addresses these questions setting the answers in the context of organisational malaise at the centre together with individual lack of capability and experience in some of the key players and the political driving of science so obvious to even a casual observer.
Yes of course this is the world as interpreted by John Ashton and of course there is much here that will be disputed when the official inquiry takes place. But John’s view of the world has proved right so many times over the years that it should be at the heart of the thinking by those who have responsibility to lead and not sneered at by ill informed Question Time presenters.
My bias? I respect and admire John Ashton and am predisposed to agreeing with his views and conclusions. I know that there are those who take a different view and who will disagree with things said in this book. As my other hero George Orwell points out though the most effective writing is that with a political purpose which is written to persuade and create change - let’s hope this book has that effect.
4 people found this helpful
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SEA WARRIOR
4.0 out of 5 stars UNCOMFORTABLE READING FOR 10 DOWNING STREET
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this and the book easily passes my Beach Read Test, not that many us will be doing that for a while. The author does a great job in exposing the government's failings in the COVID crisis. Indeed, the work is so thorough it almost obviates the need for a public inquiry. Who might find this a fascinating read? Anyone with an inquiring mind, obviously; COVID is a crisis that has affected all of us. And politicians, especially, as it is they who have been found out in this, their 'stress test'. But I have a few concerns about 'Blinded by Corona'. First, the author lets his political slip show too often. The flashes don't improve the analysis; they just call into question, slightly, its objectivity. Second, Bahrain's success, trumpeted throughout the book, might not be as good as the author makes out. At the time of this review (Dec 2020), Bahrain's infection rate is worse than the UK's. (To be fair, its death rate is far lower.) And, naturally, the publication date (Sep 2020) leaves much of the COVID story still needing telling and, importantly, the UK's relative success in the vaccination campaign not covered. I wonder if the author will be writing the sequel that this book needs? 4.5 stars.
6 people found this helpful
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louise T
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
Have enjoyed reading the book, brings to light how very frustrating it still is why we didn’t lock down earlier like other countries and they are not in the mess we are still in. Very critical of Boris and his government, but to an extent rightly so locking down so late and the mess with PPE. One point would like to make,there is couple mentions of the big events held in March, these were in Liverpool, Cheltenham and the stereophonics playing twice in Bristol. They may have held a concert in Bristol, but on 14th March they were in concert in Cardiff. No mention of the big concert in Cardiff ,if a simple fact like this is missing was just wondering if everything else accurate.
Would recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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Mrs J M Micklethwaite
5.0 out of 5 stars Truth outed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2020
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Frank and courageous account of Government incompetence. Explains why thousands of people suffered and died, while cronies profited. Account of how public health should have been done, by the author in Bahrain is fascinating. Also I needed to know why my dad died. The system (not the national health staff) failed him and thousands of others due to centralisation of public health by making it the Cinderella. Lack of planning, reference to local knowledge, demotion of public health and failure to respond to the result of operation Cygnus.
8 people found this helpful
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