House report accuses Johnson of major mistakes in Corona pandemic


Delaying lockdown ‘one of the biggest failures’ in history

A parliamentary report has given British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a poor report card for his handling of the Corona pandemic. Delaying a lockdown at the start of the pandemic last year was “one of the biggest public health failures” in the country’s history, according to the inquiry report published on Tuesday. It said the government’s “wrong” approach had cost lives. A government official rejected the allegations.

As well as criticising the government for imposing curfews on its own people too late – the MPs also pointed out that Britain had been slow to tighten its border controls. According to the report, the government had initially underestimated the corona virus and worked with the wrong models. The government’s course “should have been more strongly questioned by all”, the report said.

The MPs involved in the inquiry had heard from numerous witnesses for their 151-page report. Among them was Johnson’s controversial ex-advisor Dominic Cummings, who had himself come under fire for flouting quarantine rules following his Covid illness. An independent public inquiry into the government’s Corona policy is not due until next year.

Cummings told Sky News broadcaster of the report that he had been working on a plan for how the government could respond to another wave of Corona after the first one in the UK. “Unfortunately the prime minister, ridiculous as he is, has not taken that work forward,” he criticized.

Meanwhile, Steve Barclay, the minister responsible for the UK Cabinet Office, refused to apologise on behalf of the government. The government had “followed the scientific advice” and “made decisions to act quickly,” Barclay said in an interview with Sky News.

When imposing Corona measures such as a lockdown, there had been fears that the public would revolt against it. However, Barclay added that the government was prepared to “learn lessons if there are any.”

Meanwhile, spokeswoman for bereaved group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Hannah Brady, criticised relatives for being passed over in the inquiry. “This is an attempt to ignore the bereaved,” she said. For families whose loved ones have died from Corona infection, she said, this was a “slap in the face”.

The UK is one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the pandemic, with nearly 138,000 Corona deaths. While numerous European governments had already sealed their borders and issued lockdowns by early 2020, Johnson couldn’t bring himself to do so until late March. Shortly thereafter, Johnson himself ended up in intensive care with a Corona infection, and numerous of his Cabinet colleagues and advisers became infected. Plans had long circulated among his advisers at the time for the controlled “contagion” of the population.

by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

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