British corona lockdown came too late, delay claimed thousands of extra lives, committee says

The British government could have saved around 23 thousand lives if it had imposed a lockdown earlier during the corona pandemic. That’s in one published on Thursday report of a special commission of inquiry. In the United Kingdom, more than 230 thousand people died from corona.

According to the report, the March 2020 lockdown was introduced about a week late. This is said to be partly due to a “lack of sense of urgency” within the government of Boris Johnson, who was prime minister from 2019 to 2022.

The committee also speaks of a “toxic and chaotic” culture within the government during the pandemic, a culture that Johnson actively maintained, according to the researchers. For example, he is said to have said about deceased corona patients that “they had had their time anyway.” Women are also said to have been structurally ignored. “The loudest voices prevailed,” the report reads.

The committee further states that if measures had been taken earlier to prevent the spread of the virus, a complete lockdown may not have been necessary. And if it had been introduced, the duration would probably be shorter.

‘Overpromising and underdelivering’

The then Health Minister Matt Hancock also has to pay the price in the report. He is said to have repeatedly assured the Cabinet that the United Kingdom was well prepared, but built up a reputation for “over-promising and under-delivering”, according to the report.

In a reconstruction by The Sunday Times It was already described in 2020 that Johnson initially did not take the outbreak seriously, skipped meetings with scientific advisors and showed little willingness to work on weekends. Previous research also showed that origin, place of residence and socio-economic position in the UK had a major influence on the risk of becoming infected and the damage that the virus could cause.

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