According to a report by a cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, London is currently facing the consequences of one of the biggest failures in the history of the country in epidemics due to the inefficiency and apathy of health officials in Boris Johnson’s government. The Parliament of england blamed the government.
Boris Johnson’s Policy Against Covid-19
A cross-party group of British lawmakers in a report analysed the policy of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government in dealing with the outbreak of the Covid-19 from the beginning of the pandemic and concluded that the UK’s defeat of the disease, both in terms of death and economic consequences has been unprecedented in the history of this country. The report states that the government has completely failed to set up and manage an efficient structure to track the spread of the disease and conduct Covid-19 testing in the country. Such a system could have prevented the spread of the virus and further reduced dangers for the community.
British Cabinet Ministers Accused of Apostasy
According to the 151-page report, the UK, along with many European and North American countries, made a serious mistake in its initial response to the spread of Covid-19. The report by the Parliament of england, based on available evidence and documents, as well as the statements of 50 leading scientific and health policy advisers to the authorities, further defends the policy pursued by the countries of East and Southeast Asia in curbing Covid-19.
Do Not Use the Experiences of International Experts
The report raises the important question of why international experts were not part of the UK scientific advisory process and for what reason measures that were effective in other countries, including drawers in East and Southeast Asia, were not considered as a precaution.
If the general closures at the beginning of the outbreak in the UK had been announced just one week earlier, the total number of casualties could have been halved. However, in giving evidence to the Science and Technology Committee on 25 March 2020, Public Health England claimed to have formally studied but rejected the South Korean approach. This claim by the Public Health England was considered by members of the Parliament of england, but despite repeated requests, no evidence was provided to support the process.
The Tragedy of British Deaths
The report of this cross-party parliamentary group considers the death of more than 138 thousand Britons due to Covid-19 as a catastrophe and one of the highest death tolls in the world. Lawmakers said in a report that the UK health emergency authority first met on 4 January 2020, to review dealing with Covid-19, but could not declare a public holiday until 23 March of that year, which led to the death of many people in the country. This happened while the UK has a democratic political system to overcome such challenges.
Disaster Due to Delays in Decision-Making
The MPs’ report emphasises that delays in deciding to impose a quarantine and social distancing for Covid-19 in the first weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak marked one of the biggest shortfalls in the country’s fight against the infectious disease. Professor Neil Ferguson, Director of the Jameel Institute (J-IDEA) and MRC-GIDA, told the Science and Technology Committee that if the quarantine had been announced just a week earlier, the total number of Covid-19 casualties could have been halved.
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson’s former Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings were among those who presented their evidence to the committee. According to the report, one of the most serious initial failures in the fight against Covid-19 was the lack of consensus between the infectious disease specialists and the cabinet, as well as the weaknesses of the working group.
Criticism of Risky Government Decisions
Part of this important report criticises the government’s decision to return elderly patients to nursing homes without a Covid-19 test, saying that this negligence has led to the spread of the disease among the vulnerable. Johnson government’s top secretaries tended to offer non-expert theories regardless of the scientific advice of experts. The report also criticises the government’s approach to protecting the disabled and ethnic minorities from Covid-19.
The point of the Parliament of england report is that Greg Clark, the chair of the Science and Technology Committee, denied allegations that the government was seeking public immunity through the controlled spread of the disease but said a delay in declaring a public shutdown meant a public immunity effort through the controlled spread of disease.
The British Are Caught Up in the Arbitrariness of Health Officials
Clark has argued that the government’s approach in the first weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak likely killed more people because if people do not have the chance to get vaccinated, they will not follow quarantine guidelines for long and will not test or track or observe social distancing.
Supporting the Performance of Boris Johnson’s Government
In support of the government’s performance, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jonathan Ashworth said the report submitted by lawmakers was harmful. In this regard, Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Hannah Brady, also says that with the proper performance of the government in setting up the vaccine production line, the death of 150,000 people could have been successfully prevented.
However, the report considers the vaccine production programme and research to promote the treatment of Covid-19 patients as a positive point for the UK government’s work and says that an important part of the Oxford–AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine’s success was due to the government’s timely investment in research and development.
Confirmation of the Inefficiency of Boris Johnson’s Government
The report comes ahead of an independent public inquiry into how the government managed the Covid-19 outbreak, which Boris Johnson is set to begin next year. The world’s fifth-largest economy has been embroiled in a crisis of fuel and basic goods shortages for weeks, and a recent report by the Parliament of england confirms the inefficiency of the country’s management system in times of crisis. The UK is one of the countries in Europe hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis, with about 138,000 deaths. While many European countries took anti-Covid-19 measures such as quarantine relatively early, Johnson only put such measures on the agenda in late March 2020.
