Sir Patrick Vallance: UK coronavirus response has not achieved a good outcome
The UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has not achieved a good outcome, according to chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
Vallance told a parliamentary committee today that he thinks about why the UK has had so many deaths “a lot”, but added that the reason could be down to many factors.
Vallance also said that he was “sure” that mistakes had been made during the crisis, while adding that he recommended the UK’s lockdown be imposed up to a week earlier than it actually was.
The chief scientific adviser’s comments are in stark contrast to senior members of government who have been reluctant to admit anything went wrong with its response to Covid-19.
That is despite having one of the worst total coronavirus death tolls in the world, together with one of the highest rates of death per capita.
More than 45,000 people have died in the UK from the virus so far.
When asked by Westminster’s Science and Technology Committee about why the UK had such a high death toll, Vallance said: “We think about that a lot and clearly there are things we do as we go along to keep learning and we are in regular contact with many international partners.
“As [chief medical officer] Chris Whitty has said before it’s very difficult to know exactly where we stand at the moment, it’s clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK – I think we can be absolutely clear about that.
“There are many factors I think that are going to play in when we look and say ‘what is it that makes some countries having done worse than others’ and there will be decisions made that didn’t turn out to be right at the time – I’m sure of that as well.”
Vallance also talked about how the virus highlighted the need for the UK to improve its data gathering abilities for future public health emergencies.
He added: “You need the information to be able to make the decision, therefore for any emergency situations those data systems need to be in place up front in order to be able to give the information to make the analysis and make the decisions.”