Lockdown could have been avoided and other key findings

A long-awaited independent report into how well or poorly the government has handled the Covid pandemic. was published.

The inquiry's chair, former judge Baroness Hallett, said the UK's response could be described as “too little, too late”.

The report examines whether the lockdowns were timely and reasonable, and what impact breaking rules at the heart of government has had on public trust.

Here are some of the main findings.

The report said the lockdown could have been avoided if measures such as social distancing and isolation of people with symptoms and their families had been put in place earlier than mid-March 2020.

But by the time ministers acted, it was too late and a lockdown was inevitable, the report said.

By the end of January 2020, “it should have become clear that the virus posed a serious and immediate threat”, while February 2020 was a “lost month” and the government's overall lack of urgency was “inexcusable”, the investigation found.

Voluntary measures were introduced on 16 March 2020, followed by a complete home lockdown seven days later.

Introducing lockdown a week earlier, on March 16, would have meant 23,000 fewer deaths in England in the first wave, modeling suggests. This would mean 48% fewer deaths in the first wave.

But the report does not say that the overall death toll from the pandemic – 227,000 in the UK by the time it is declared over in 2023 – could have been reduced by an earlier lockdown.

This is very difficult to say because it depends on many other factors that could reduce or increase the number of deaths as the pandemic progresses.

The report describes the “toxic and chaotic” culture underpinning the UK government during its response to the pandemic, which it says has affected the quality of advice and decision-making.

While it says a number of senior executives and advisers have exhibited poor behaviour, Boris Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings is described as having had a “destabilizing influence”.

It said his actions “contributed significantly to the culture of fear, mutual suspicion and mistrust that has poisoned the atmosphere at 10 Downing Street.”

Then-Prime Minister Johnson was also criticized for being overly optimistic in the face of the looming pandemic and “vacillating” on key lockdown decisions.

The report said Johnson “should have realized earlier that this was an emergency situation requiring an urgent response from the Prime Minister's leadership.”

Instead, he failed to appreciate the urgency of the situation, “due to his optimism, this will not achieve anything,” the report said.

Meanwhile, Baroness Hallett accuses his health secretary, Matt Hancock, of not being “candid” enough about the UK's ability to cope with the virus.

While the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns undoubtedly saved lives, they also “left deep scars on societies and economies, halted normal childhoods, delayed diagnosis and treatment of other health problems, and exacerbated social inequalities,” the report said.

The report said children were not given enough attention and ministers had not adequately considered the impact of school closures.

It said the vast majority of children were not at risk of serious direct harm from Covid “but have been greatly affected by school closures and the requirement to stay at home”.

None of the UK's four countries were adequately prepared for the sudden and enormous task of homeschooling the majority of children, the study adds.

The report said rule-breaking by politicians and their advisers undermined public confidence in decisions and significantly increased the risk that people would not adhere to measures introduced.

It lists events such as Cummings' trip to Durham and Barnard Castle in March 2020; two visits to a second home during lockdown by Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood; and a visit to the home of Professor Neil Ferguson's supervisor by a woman with whom he was in a relationship during lockdown.

By then details parties and social events in Downing Street The appearance in November 2021 caused a “public outcry,” the report said.

Johnson and Rishi Sunak subsequently received fixed penalties for their actions.

All four countries were criticized for their planning and decision-making, which the investigation said was hampered by a lack of trust between Boris Johnson and first ministers.

The investigation found that in early 2020, while all four countries lacked urgency in their response, the devolved administrations relied excessively on the UK government to lead the response.

The four countries then diverged on their strategy for emerging from the first national lockdown, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland taking a more cautious approach, but this was hampered by the lack of restrictions on travel from England, where many restrictions had been eased.

The report notes that in the fall of 2020. Holyrood was the only government to learn from the first lockdown and introduced tough, locally-focused measures that helped avoid the need for a national lockdown.

On the other side, Northern Ireland's decision-making process has been described as “chaotic”.Bye Welsh Government approach resulted in the highest age-standardized death rate among the four countries between August and December 2020.

The report contains a long list of recommendations, including:

• Create structures to improve communication between the four countries during an emergency.
• Improve consideration of the impact that decisions can have on people – both depending on the disease and the measures taken to respond to it.
• Create expert panels to advise on economic and social impacts, not just science.
• Ensure that decisions and their consequences are clearly communicated to the public.
• Ensure stricter parliamentary oversight of emergency powers

The government does not have to accept the inquiry's recommendations, but it must respond to them, which could shape future policy.

The inquiry has already reported on Britain's pandemic preparedness and concluded that Loser British citizens with flawed plans.