UK panel examines response to COVID-19 | the diary record

LONDON – Britain made a mistake by focusing too much on preparations for a flu pandemic rather than considering other types of pandemic in the years leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak, former Prime Minister David Cameron said in a public consultation on Monday. .

Cameron, who led Britain’s Conservative government from 2010 to 2016, was the first politician to be questioned over the sweeping inquiry into the UK’s preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, how the government responded and what lessons can be learned for the future.

The UK had one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in Europe, with the virus recorded as the cause of death for almost 227,000 people.

Testifying under oath, Cameron said that during his time in office, officials focused too much on the dangers of an influenza pandemic. Not enough questions were being asked about the possibility of an outbreak of other highly infectious respiratory diseases, he said.

“A lot of time was spent on an influenza pandemic and that was seen as the biggest danger,” Cameron said.

He said his government has looked at other pandemics, including MERS and SARS. But he added: “I think the failure was not to ask more questions about the highly infectious, asymptomatic transmission… which turned out to be the pandemic we had.”

He said many countries were “in the same boat of not knowing what was coming” but argued the UK did better than many to “scan the horizon, try to plan for” a pandemic.

Cameron also rejected allegations that austerity measures under his leadership that cut public spending on public services left the UK’s National Health Service much more vulnerable to the pandemic.

Earlier, the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, argued that Cameron’s austerity policies led to years of damage to public health care and a “lack of priority on the health of the nation.”

“The UK was severely on the defensive when COVID took hold, and this proved disastrous,” said Philip Banfield, the union’s council chairman.

The official investigation, led by a retired judge, will take three years to complete. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who led the UK during the pandemic, agreed in late 2021 to conduct the inquiry after heavy pressure from bereaved families.

Many other high-ranking politicians are expected to be called in to face questions. On Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt, the current Treasury chief and former health secretary, and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden are due to testify.

The pandemic and how the British government handled it is a topic dominating headlines again after lawmakers issued a scathing report last week concluding that Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the staff parties at which he mocked of confinement in his office.

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