Government repeating same mistakes led to Covid deaths, adviser tells inquiry

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Professor Dame Angela McLean criticised a “lack of appreciation that very quick decisions were needed” during the pandemic, and said this was the “most significant shortcoming” in decision-making. We’d been telling them since we started there will be an autumn wave Professor Dame Angela McLean She criticised a lack of action in September 2020 when she and other scientists were calling for a “circuit breaker” to reduce cases. “The number of infections kept rising through September and October with attendant hospitalisations and, sadly, deaths.” When asked whether deaths would have been lower if a circuit breaker had been imposed earlier, Dame Angela said: “Yes.” Figures show that there were 57,896 deaths involving Covid-19 which occurred in the UK during the first wave of the pandemic, from the start of the crisis to the end of August 2020. We wait til the last possible moment – we delay and delay a decision, and then we have to slam the brakes on as hard as possible, with the attendant social costs and economic costs.” Dame Angela also told the inquiry there was a “lack of appreciation that very quick decisions were needed” around exponential growth of cases and “lagged control” – the time-lag between something happening and its actual effect.