United kingdom. A report accuses thousands of deaths of delayed response to the pandemic

A report by British parliamentarians noted that the delayed initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic has killed thousands of people, while ensuring that the authorities’ failure to prevent the disease’s spread is one of the public’s “biggest failures”. health level.

The report, released on Tuesday, specifies that the approach of Boris Johnson’s government, with the support of the scientists who advised him, was to try to manage the situation and, in effect, achieve herd immunity by infecting citizens.

This approach led to delays in imposing the first lockdown, resulting in thousands of deaths, according to the British press. In the UK, more than 150,000 people have died from COVID-19.

The 150-page report, which focuses on the response to the pandemic in England, also describes some successes in managing the emergency, such as the COVID-19 vaccination scheme, which it described as “one of the most effective initiatives in UK history”.

The leaders of the committees that produced the work, Governors Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, said in a statement: “The UK has combined some great achievements and some big mistakes. It is essential to learn from both.”

For his part, the UK’s Chief of Staff, Stephen Barclay, stressed that the government had followed scientific recommendations and defended the “difficult decisions” taken to protect the national health system. In parallel, he influenced the BBC’s statements that the executive branch bears responsibility for everything that happened and reiterated the apology made by Johnson for the country’s suffering due to the epidemic.