Report says UK's slow virus lockdown cost 1000s of lives

A U.K. parliamentary report says Britain’s Conservative government waited too long to impose a lockdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a delay that cost thousands of lives

LONDON -- The British government failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic ranks among England's worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the country's first comprehensive report on the pandemic.

The deadly delay led to thousands of unnecessary deaths and derived from the failure of government ministers to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of “groupthink” that caused them to dismiss the more aggressive strategies adopted in East and Southeast Asia, the report said.

It was only when Britain’s National Health Service risked being overwhelmed by rapidly rising infections that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government finally ordered a lockdown. in late March 2020.

“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,'' states the joint report from the House of Commons’ science and health committees. “Painful though it is, the U.K. must learn what lessons it can of why this happened if we are to ensure it is not repeated.''