What went wrong in the UK’s covid-19 response?

In May 2020, Sarah Wollaston, Mike Gill, and I called for a rapid inquiry into the British government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic.1 This would have been an opportunity to learn lessons and not to repeat them. At that time, we knew that the UK’s response to the news of an emerging infection had been slow, leading to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths. We were anxious that this should not be repeated. Our call was ignored and the events of March 2020 were repeated in December 2020 as the prime minister, anxious to be seen to “save Christmas,” dithered as a new variant, B.1.1.7, spread rapidly. More recently, he delayed imposing a ban on travel from India until 23 April 2021. The reasons remain obscure. Bangladesh and Pakistan had been placed on the red list on 9 April 2021 despite having much lower incidence rates. Television screens in the UK were full of horrendous pictures from India, with people dying in the streets. Of course, the prime minister insisted that this had nothing to do with his desire to sign a trade agreement with India and we must take his word for it. The consequences of enabling entry of the B.1.617.2 variant, now rising rapidly in several parts of the UK, are still unclear, but it does seem like the same mistake is being made yet again.

The prime minister has, at last, agreed that there will be an inquiry. It will begin in spring 2022. The reason he gave for the delay is that “we must not inadvertently divert or distract the people on whom we depend in the heat …