Too little, too late': damning report condemns UK's Covid response

"The UK's response to Covid was too little, too late, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives. The document also has stinging criticism of a toxic and chaotic culture inside Boris Johnson's Downing Street which it said the then prime minister actively embraced in which the loudest voices held sway and women were sidelined."

"Detailed in more than 750 pages across two volumes, the findings of the second part of the Covid inquiry's hearings, on how government handled the pandemic, paint a consistent picture of delay, inaction and a seeming inability to learn lessons. The narrative about the start of the pandemic in early 2020 is particularly brutal, describing February as a lost month."

UK actions during early 2020 were repeatedly delayed and inadequate, with February described as a lost month. Lockdown imposed one week earlier, on 16 March, could have cut first-wave deaths in England by almost half, equating to about 23,000 lives saved. Leadership in Downing Street fostered a toxic, chaotic culture in which loud voices dominated and women were sidelined; a senior adviser was central to a culture of fear. The government response effectively halted during the half-term holiday week, and devolved administrations and scientific advisers also failed to act swiftly.

Read at www.theguardian.com