Report says UK’s slow virus lockdown cost 1000s of lives

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A U.K. parliamentary report says Britain’s Conservative government waited too long to impose a lockdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a delay that cost thousands of lives. A joint report from the House of Commons’ science and health committees published Tuesday says the deadly delay resulted from ministers’ failure to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of “groupthink.” It was only when the National Health Service risked being overwhelmed by rapidly rising infections that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government finally ordered a lockdown. Cabinet minister Stephen Barclay defended the government’s response. He says “decisions were taken on the evidence and the scientific advice at the time.”