UK’s initial report to COVID-19 pandemic was public health failure: Reports

An official report prepared by lawmakers revealed the UK’s failure to make up for Covid’s spread early in the pandemic was one of the worst ever public health failures.

The government’s approach – supported by its scientists – was to try to manage the situation and effectively achieve herd immunity through infection, it said.

This led to a delay with the introduction of the first blockade, which cost thousands of lives.

But the report also highlights successes, including vaccination.

It describes the whole approach to the vaccination program – from research and development to rolling out jabs – as “one of the most effective initiatives in UK history”.

The report focuses mainly on the response to the pandemic in England. The committee did not look at any steps taken individually by Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The results are detailed in the report – Coronavirus: Lessons Learned to Date – from the Health and Social Security Committee and the Science and Technology Committee, which includes deputies from all parties.

Over 150 pages, the report covers a variety of successes and failures.

Deputies call the pandemic, which has claimed more than 150,000 lives in Britain and nearly five million worldwide to date, the “greatest peacetime challenge” for a century.

Some of the first early mistakes, the report says, came from apparent “groupthink” between scientists and ministers – meaning the UK was not as open to different approaches to past losses, border controls and test and trace as it should be.