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UK Coronavirus Commons Report Overview:
- Why: The committees tracked the government’s slow and fatal response
- Who: The Commons science and technology committee and the health and social care committee released a new report on the UK’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Where: The report denounces the United Kingdom government bodies
A new Commons report blasts Britain’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic for leading to a higher death toll, leaving minority groups behind, and succumbing to “fatalism,” labeling it as “one of the most important public health failures” in the United Kingdom.
The report heavily criticizes the government’s “deliberate” delayed lockdown, decision to halt mass testing, a chaotic test and trace and isolate system and failure to implement safety measures used by other countries. Poor preparation also left behind Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups, people with learning disabilities, and folks in care homes.
The 151-page report, titled “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date”, was released by the Commons science and technology committee and the health and social care committee and was led by two former Conservative ministers.
The report includes evidence from more than 50 witnesses, former health secretary Matt Hancock, the government’s chief scientific and medical advisers and leaders from the vaccine taskforce and NHS Test and Trace.
Commons Report: ‘Fatalism’ Groupthink Led to Public Health Disaster
The report points to a fatalist “groupthink” among ministers and scientists as the reason for their “slow and gradualist” approach to containing COVID.
Greg Clark, the chair of the science and technology committee, observed that those in charge were under the impression that a vaccine was improbable, that people wouldn’t obey lockdown and that testing, tracing and isolating people was out of their hands, thus leading to a sense of “fatalism”. That led ministers to believe that inaction and herd immunity was the only way to go.
However, that resulted in a “significantly worse” outcome for the UK compared to other countries, according to the report.
The two areas that the report praises are the UK’s rapid vaccine rollout and the Recovery trial that identified life-saving treatments.
UK ‘Squandered’ Its Own Resources, Commons Report Says
The damning report marvels at how the UK had “some of the best expertise available anywhere in the world” and an “open, democratic system”, yet still managed to bungle the pandemic response. The already weak approach was also compounded by the lack of data sharing even between local and national government.
The report questions why international experts were not brought in to help advise the government. It also notes that Public Health England had studied and rejected the South Korean approach (guided by “test, trace, and contain”) but provided no evidence to MPs to support its decision despite repeated requests.
The report indicts UK leadership for squandering the lead it gained by being one of the first countries to develop a COVID test in January 2020, and instead turning the pandemic into a “permanent crisis”.
When the UK did roll out its own testing, tracing, and isolating system, it was “slow, uncertain and often chaotic” and “ultimately failed” in preventing the spread of COVID and future lockdowns, according to the report.
What do you think of this expansive Commons report on the UK’s coronavirus handling? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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