Report highlights government's pandemic mistakes in Liverpool
A report by MPs calls the government's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic 'one of the worst public health failures in UK history.'
Last updated 12th Oct 2021
It's claimed local lockdowns in the Liverpool City Region last year were "inconsistent, and scientifically ambiguous".
A report by MPs says thousands of lives across the country were lost because of delays and mistakes by ministers and their advisers at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
It references the government's decision not to stop the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid game on the 11th March 2020, when 50 thousand fans packed into Anfield:
'The Government’s action plan of 3 March indicated that there was no intention to bring in a lockdown as strict as had been implemented in some other parts of the world. The action plan, under the heading ‘the Delay phase - next steps’ said: Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies (such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings) to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population, while ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as possible.
'That approach meant that events that may have spread the virus proceeded—such as the football match between Liverpool FC and Atletico Madrid on 11 March—the day the coronavirus was categorised as a pandemic by the WHO—with a reported crowd of over 50,000110 and the Cheltenham Festival of Racing between 10 and 13 March, attracting more than 250,000 people.
'Subsequent analysis suggested that there were an additional 37 and 41 deaths respectively at local hospitals after these events.
'However, it is not clear whether those deaths were as a result of attendance at the events themselves or associated activities such as travel or congregation in pubs. The timeline at pages 11 and 12 of this Report sets out some key events in the UK’s experience of handling covid-19.'
The report, released by the Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee, also mentions the dispute over imposing local restrictions in some parts of the North West:
'The North West of England had stubbornly high levels of covid throughout the summer, and restrictions were imposed on Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Blackburn, and eventually the whole ofthe region on 29 September 2020.
'The Government sought to agree with local leaders the package of restrictions that would apply in particular areas. However, the consequence of this approach led to political differences between national government and some local leaders as to what measures were appropriate for their area—most prominently, the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, and the Government being in a state of disagreement for 10 days during October before restrictions were imposed unilaterally.'
The report highlights the Army's involvement in Liverpool's mass testing pilot scheme, which went on to be rolled out across the country:
'In particular, the Armed Forces have supported the Government’s mass testing programme and the roll-out of covid-19 vaccines. For example, 2,000 Armed Forces personnel were deployed to Liverpool to support mass testing in November 2020,'
'Following trials in different settings, most notably a citywide trial in Liverpool, it was not until 9 April 2021 that rapid coronavirus testing was offered to everyone in England, including those without symptoms.'
Finally, the report does praise the country's vaccine programme.
Ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt chairs one of the committees behind the report, he said:
"The timing of the lockdown, the late adoption of test and trace, they were two things we got wrong. But at that very same time, the very same people forward-bought 400million doses of vaccine, and that gave us one of the best vaccine programmes in the whole world.
"The purpose of our report is not to look at individuals, because in a future pandemic it'll be different people making the decisions. It's to look at the structures and to say that we could have had a different approach at the start of the pandemic, if we had been more open to best practice in other countries -how can we change the structures to make sure in the future with a different set of actors we do just that?"