The BEST episodes directed by Joe Plomin
#1 - Test and Trace Exposed
Panorama - Season 2020 - Episode 37
Panorama hears from whistleblowers working inside the government’s new coronavirus tracking system. They are so concerned about NHS Test and Trace that they are speaking out to reveal chaos, technical problems, confusion, wasted resources and a system that does not appear to them to be working. The programme also hears from local public health teams who say they have largely been ignored by the government in favour of the private companies hired to run the new centralised tracking system. As Panorama investigates, it has left some local authorities questioning whether local lockdowns could have been handled better or avoided altogether.
#2 - Undercover: Inside the Covid Testing Lab
Panorama - Season 2021 - Episode 14
Panorama goes undercover inside a lab analysing thousands of Covid-19 tests per day. Secretly filmed footage reveals a failing service with shoddy practices, where staff complain they are under pressure to meet targets despite the lab often running well below capacity. The programme discovers there have been three outbreaks of coronavirus among staff and that social distancing is poorly maintained. Test samples sometimes arrive poorly packaged and labelled, with equipment frequently malfunctioning, leading to contamination of results. The programme also discovers that tests, including some intended to find new variants of coronavirus, have been wrongly discarded or lost.