In the hours before Liverpool faced Atlético Madrid at Anfield in a crucial Champions League match in March, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. But like other major events in Britain at the time, the government was content to let the match go ahead, allowing upwards of 50,000 people – many travelling from Madrid – to gather in close proximity.
One of those there that night was Simon Renoldi, who tells Anushka Asthana that days later he took to his bed with all the symptoms associated with Covid-19. Shortly afterwards, his father, who worked with him in the family pub, fell ill and died.
The Guardian investigative reporter David Conn has been digging into the advice the government was offering at the time and the science it was relying on.
With clips from: BT Sport, Downing Street, ITV, Racing TV, Sky News, Thurrock Nub News, Facebook, YouTube
Photograph: David Blunsden/Action Plus/REX/Shutterstock
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