Serious mistakes by ministers and scientists at the start of the Covid pandemic cost lives and hampered the country’s ability to respond to the threat of the virus, a damning new report has found.
MPs have criticised the time it took to lock the country down in March 2020, the lack of testing early on, a failure to close the borders with hard-hit countries and the decision not to test people as they were discharged from hospitals.
The study – penned by two parliamentary committees – said the ‘decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced’.
Evidence for the report was compiled via hours of interviews with key figures including the Prime Minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings and former health secretary Matt Hancock.
The study – penned by two parliamentary committees – said the ‘decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced’.
Evidence for the report was compiled via hours of interviews with key figures including the Prime Minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings and former health secretary Matt Hancock.
Two areas were praised by MPs – treatments and vaccines – saying ministers were ‘correct to identify that a vaccine would be the long-term route out of the pandemic’ and supported research and development.
But the report was mostly critical. Here Metro.co.uk breaks down its major findings and the failures that may have cost thousands of lives.
Not testing people discharged from hospitals to care homes was a major error, the report said (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
The UK was not prepared for a Covid pandemic
The UK’s pandemic planning was too ‘narrowly and inflexibly based on a flu model’ that failed to learn the lessons from previous outbreaks of Sars, Mers and Ebola, the report found.
The country’s national risk register, which was in place at the start of the pandemic, said ‘the likelihood of an emerging infectious disease spreading within the UK is assessed to be lower than that of a pandemic flu’.
It also said only up to 100 people may die during any outbreak of an emerging infectious disease.
A key report showed 500,000 people could die unless the country locked down (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
No social distancing
When Covid was first identified in China, MPs said the UK’s policy was to take a ‘gradual and incremental approach’ to interventions such as social distancing and isolation.
If measures had been introduced earlier, the country could have bought itself more time to develop vaccines and treatments.
MPs said the ‘early weeks of the pandemic expose deficiencies in both scientific advice and Government action’, with no real idea of how far the virus had spread and a downplaying of the role of asymptomatic transmission.
In their study, they said this was ‘a deliberate policy’ proposed by scientists and adopted by UK governments, which has now been shown to be ‘wrong’ and led to a higher death toll.
Lockdown came too late
MPs concluded it was ‘astonishing’ it took so long for Sage to say a full lockdown was needed and for the Government to implement one, adding they thought the evidence showed a lockdown was ‘inevitable’.
But there was a ‘false belief’ that the public would not accept lockdown, or would only do so for a short period of time.
It was only when a paper from Imperial College London, presented to Sage, that showed 500,000 people could die, that minds were changed in Government and lockdown was implemented.
‘Herd immunity’ failed to stop the spread
MPs found although pursuing ‘herd immunity’ was not an official strategy, experts and ministers sought to ‘only moderate the speed of infection’ through the population – flattening the curve – rather than seeking to stop its spread altogether.
The report added: ‘The policy was pursued until March 23 because of the official scientific advice the Government received, not in spite of it.’
Even as late as March 12, 2020, Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, told a press conference that it was not possible to stop everyone being infected, and nor was that a desirable objective.
The following day, members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) also said they were ‘unanimous that measures seeking to completely suppress spread of Covid-19 will cause a second peak’.
There was too little testing early on
Regarding test and trace, the ‘slow, uncertain, and often chaotic performance of the test, trace and isolate system severely hampered the UK’s response to the pandemic’, MPs said.
This lack of testing capacity meant there was nowhere near enough data on Covid spread, while abandoning community testing on March 12 was regarded as a ‘seminal failure’.
‘Light touch’ border controls
In other criticisms, MPs said the UK implemented ‘light-touch border controls’ only on countries with high Covid rates, even though 33% of cases during the first wave were introduced from Spain and 29% from France.
Some of the measures introduced to stop the spread were ‘confusing’ (Picture: PA)
Elderly ‘were abandonded’
MPs said that thousands of elderly people died in care homes during the first wave of the pandemic, caused in part by the decision not to test people discharged from hospitals.
This showed that ‘social care had a less prominent voice in Government during the early stages of the pandemic than did the NHS’.
MPs noted ‘unacceptably high death rates among people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities’ and those with learning disabilities.
‘Increased exposure to Covid as a result of people’s housing and working conditions played a significant role’, the report stated.
BAME staff in the NHS, who often held more junior positions, were not given the necessary PPE to protect themselves.
failures during the pandemic cost lives, the report found (Picture: Reuters)
The UK’s vaccination programme
A report on the UK’s pandemic planning praised the country’s vaccination programme as the booster jab campaign launched in recent weeks.
NHS England has launched its effort to deliver third jabs to NHS and social workers and vulnerable people as we head into what could be a difficult winter.
Hubs have been set up in hospitals to start inoculating frontline staff to prevent the virus spreading on wards.
The number of people vaccinated against coronavirus as of October 2021 (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
The renewed vaccine drive was approved after research found people who were jabbed more than six months ago have waning resistance to Covid-19.
GPs have also been told they can administer the flu jab at the same time as the vaccine, but not if it holds up the latter.
Health officials are worried about a bad flu season hitting the country as immunity is likely to be lower after lockdowns suppressed seasonal outbreaks, coupled with the reality that flu strain sampling has been reduced with resources diverted to fighting Covid-19.
Autumn restrictions ‘were confusing’
Scientific evidence for some measures was lacking, such as the imposition from September 24 2020 of a 10pm curfew on pubs, or the banning of outdoor children’s sports clubs, MPs said.
The report also pointed to the regional tier system as being confusing for the public, adding that it was not ‘watertight’ enough to prevent infection spreading.
Nearly 140,000 people have died with Covid since the start of the pandemic (Picture: Getty)
Reaction to the report
In a joint statement, Tory MPs Greg Clark and Jeremy Hunt, who chair the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, said: ‘The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future.
‘Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective.
‘The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.
‘In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right.
‘We record our gratitude to all those – NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers – who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.’
A key report showed 500,000 people could die unless the country locked down (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
Some of the measures introduced to stop the spread were ‘confusing’ (Picture: PA)
