Covid early response one of worst public health failures in UK history, say MPs

MPs have described the government’s handling of the pandemic as one of the worst public health failures the UK has ever experienced.

In a scathing report, two cross-party committees said that the failure to impose a lockdown early enough in the pandemic cost thousands of British lives, and said efforts to “follow the science” simply resulted in groupthink.

Government ministers insist they did what they could in an unprecedented situation. And the report does praise the UK’s successful vaccination programme.