UK's Initial Virus Response Was A Disaster: MPs' Probe

MPs found the government’s pandemic planning last year too focused on influenza

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LONDON UK lawmakers said yesterday that the government’s response when Covid-19 swept into Europe cost lives and was “one of the most important public health failures” in the country’s history.

In a damning assessment, a crossparty group of MPs found that official pandemic planning was too focused on influenza and had failed to learn the lessons from prior outbreaks of Sars, Mers and Ebola.

The 151-page study, published by two parliamentary committees after months of hearings, comes ahead of an independent public inquiry into the government’s coronavirus handling due to begin next year.