U.K.’s COVID-19 response ‘too little, too late,’ cost thousands of lives, inquiry says

Staff care for a COVID-19 patient at the Intensive Care Unit at Royal Papworth Hospital on May 5, 2020, in Cambridge, England. (Neil Hall/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

LONDON — The United Kingdom did “too little, too late,” in its early response to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to thousands of more deaths, the head of the U.K. COVID-19 Inquiry said as its latest findings were released.

“The initial response to the pandemic was marked by a lack of information and a lack of urgency,” the inquiry’s report said, adding that “despite clear signs that the virus was spreading globally, all four nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) failed to take sufficiently timely and effective action.”

If the U.K. government had introduced restrictions earlier, when the number of COVID-19 cases was lower, mandatory lockdown could have either been shorter or avoided all together, it added.

Instead, “this lack of urgency and the huge rise in infections made a mandatory lockdown inevitable.”

“They had no choice by then. But, it was through their own acts and omissions that they had no choice,” said Baroness Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s chair.

Meanwhile, if the lockdown – which began on March 23, 2020 – had been introduced just a week earlier, at least 23,000 people would have survived, according to the report.

“The evidence suggests that the number of deaths in England alone in the first wave up until the 1st of July 2020, would have been reduced by 48 per cent,” Hallett said.

Thursday’s report, the second of 10 areas of investigation for the inquiry, was focused on how political leaders and senior officials made decisions during the pandemic. It examined the core machinery of government, the role of scientific advice, and the relationship between Westminster and the devolved nations as the crisis unfolded.

Calling February 2020 a “lost month,” Hallett said: “The obviously escalating crisis required leadership from the very top. All four governments knew that in the reasonable worst case scenario, up to 80 per cent of the population would be infected, with a very significant loss of life.”

Meanwhile, rule-breaking politicians and their advisers weakened public confidence in government decisions and increased the likelihood that people would ignore restrictions, the report said, faulting all four U.K. nations for poor planning and decision-making.

It said that strained relations and low trust between former U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson and the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland made coordination difficult.

Johnson’s response throughout the crisis was criticized by many who said that he wasn’t taking the pandemic seriously enough. The so-called “Partygate” scandal, which saw Johnson found guilty of breaking his own COVID-19 rules by attending a gathering to celebrate his birthday, contributed to his departure as prime minister in July 2022.

“There was a toxic and chaotic culture at the heart of the U.K. government …this kind of culture is detrimental to good decision making,” Hallett said.

COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, which campaigned for an independent inquiry, said in a Thursday statement that “while it is vindicating to see Boris Johnson blamed in black and white for the catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, it is devastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different prime minister.”

“To make mistakes is human. To refuse to listen to frontline workers, vulnerable people, the insights of devolved leaders or scientific experts is unforgivable,” it said.

The report said that children were not given sufficient priority, as ministers did not fully account for the consequences of closing school and that overall, lockdown caused lasting societal harm and heightened existing inequalities.

It did commend ministers for a successful vaccine rollout and for managing the exit from lockdown in early 2021 in a way that protected vulnerable groups.

Thursday’s report follows the inquiry’s initial report, published in July 2024, which delivered a stark assessment of the country’s pandemic preparedness.

That report concluded that the U.K. entered the pandemic with “fatal strategic flaws” embedded in its emergency planning systems and found that government preparedness was focused almost entirely on influenza rather than respiratory viruses like COVID-19, despite international warnings.

This narrow scenario planning meant that essential protections, such as robust PPE stockpiles, effective surveillance, and diverse expert input were all inadequate once the pandemic began, it said.

Ten recommendations were issued, including a statutory body for emergency preparedness, regular national pandemic exercises, simplified crisis structures, and significantly improved data systems.

Kara Fox, CNN