#lockdown-timing

#lockdown-timing

"all four governments failed to appreciate the scale of the threat or the urgency of response it demanded in the early part of 2020." Ministers were in part relying on "misleading assurances" that the UK was prepared, she said. Government scientists underestimated how quickly the virus was spreading and in the early days were advising restrictions should not be introduced until the spread of the virus was nearer its peak to help build up herd immunity, Lady Hallett added.

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.