British Parliament calls the government’s response to the pandemic one of the UK’s biggest failures | Sandra Cohen’s blog

Cabinet led by Boris Johnson has been slow to move and establish the first blockades, monitor borders and trace the virus, causing more deaths than necessary. The document was published a year after the commission, made up of 12 Conservative MPs, eight Labor and two Scottish Nationalists, was announced.

They are part of the British Parliament’s Committee on Health, Welfare, Science and Technology and have indicated the wrong path the government is taking: trying to get the situation under control, achieving herd immunity.

With European neighbors under lockdown, the UK has sought to manage the novel coronavirus outbreak as if it were the flu. This slow and gradual approach proved demonstrably ineffective, as the virus spread rapidly, killing thousands, as the text explains:

“There was a desire to avoid the roadblock due to the massive damage it would do to the economy, normal health services and society. In the absence of strategies such as strict case isolation, important testing, tracers, and strong border controls, a complete blockade was inevitable and should have been. Happening soon.”

Based on the testimonies of 50 witnesses, the document seeks not to mention the perpetrators. They are expected to appear in the investigation by an independent commission of inquiry, which the British Prime Minister has promised to launch in the first half of 2022.

This commission must be chaired by a judge, appointed by the end of the year, and will have a different form than the parliamentary commission: it has a mandate to obtain any official document and to require the attendance of witnesses.

Johnson is counting on the success of the second phase of the epidemic, with an effective blockade and mass vaccinations, to win pardon from the British.

The UK counts 150,000 deaths from Covid-19, and its indicators lag behind those of its neighbours. The report, written by parliamentarians, shows that the UK squandered its leadership, turning the health crisis into a permanent one, based on the idea of ​​Anglo-centralism, with better results in relation to other countries.

The slow response, combined with failures in the government machinery, showed that the course was the opposite of what had been planned. Meanwhile, an error.