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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
The story of ‘one billion items of PPE’ begins at an English government press conference on Saturday 18 April 2020. These daily briefings, streamed live across radio and television broadcasters, comprised of one elected politician from the Conservative Party and one or more scientific advisers to the government. These officials provided an update on the latest data, the policies being introduced and implemented, and the longer-term strategy to deal with the pandemic.
At this particular press conference in mid-April, Dan Hewitt from the popular television broadcaster ITV asks three questions to Steven Powys, the National Medical Director for National Health Service (NHS) England, and Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. It is worth outlining each in full:
1. How have we found ourselves in the situation where we are dangerously low on PPE?
2. Why hasn't the government had a plan B here, getting small, medium, large manufacturers to produce PPE?
3. Do you accept the worries of NHS doctors and nurses that we have spoken to today that by downgrading your PPE guidance, by not providing proper PPE, you are putting their lives at greater risk? (BBC News, 2020a)
Robert Jenrick, after a brief stutter, emphasizes how the public are in awe of social care and NHS staff and how nobody wants to see these people worried about whether they will have the correct equipment. He emphasizes how the government has to do more to get the PPE to the frontline but also stresses how it is a huge challenge given the global demand for equipment. Despite this, he explains that the government is making progress: “Today I can report that a very large consignment of PPE is due to arrive in the UK tomorrow from Turkey … which will include 400,000 gowns” (BBC News, 2020a).
This statement starts a strange ball rolling in government rhetoric around supply and distribution of PPE – one that bounced along from Saturday to Sunday to Monday to Tuesday and, finally coming to a stop, on Wednesday. It is important to provide a day-by-day play of how this panned out.
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