UK Government Mishandled Initial Covid Response: MP's Probe
NDTV
In a damning assessment, a cross-party group of MPs found that official pandemic planning was too focused on influenza and had failed to learn the lessons from prior outbreaks of SARS, MERS and Ebola.
A British parliamentary report published Tuesday said that the government's delay in locking down society when Covid-19 hit last year had cost lives and was "one of the most important public health failures" in the country's history.
In a damning assessment, a cross-party group of MPs found that official pandemic planning was too focused on influenza and had failed to learn the lessons from prior outbreaks of SARS, MERS and Ebola.
The 151-page study, published by two parliamentary watchdog committees after months of hearings, comes ahead of an independent public inquiry into the government's coronavirus handling due to begin next year.
Britain has been hit hard by the crisis, with nearly 138,000 Covid-19 deaths -- one of the highest tolls in Europe -- since March last year, raising questions about why it has fared worse than many other nations.
