Coronavirus: The UK Locked Down Too Late, and It’s Cost a Lot of Lives, Says Professor John Edmunds

The United Kingdom was locked down too late, and it’s cost a lot of lives, says government coronavirus advisor, Professor John Edmunds.

Professor John Edmunds is a government advisor, a professor in the Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and has revealed his regrets of the UK’s late locked down, which would have saved more lives.

In an interview with Andrew Marr on BBC, he said, “We should have gone into lockdown earlier.”

“I think it would have been hard to do it,” he continued, “I think the data that we were dealing with in the early part of March and our situational awareness was really quite poor.”

“So, I think it would’ve been very hard to pull the trigger at that point, but I wish we had.”

“I wish we had gone into lockdown earlier. I think that has cost a lot of lives, unfortunately,” he said.

The infectious disease expert further said the crisis “is definitely not all over,” admonishing there is an “awful long way to go.”
“If we do relax our guard, this epidemic will come back very fast,” he said.

However, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, disagrees with Professor John Edmunds, who suggested Boris Johnson should have imposed movement restrictions earlier.

The health secretary disagreed with the expert comments and replied, “No, I think we took the right decisions at the right time.”

“And there’s a broad range on Sage of scientific opinion. We were guided by the science – which means guided by the balance of that opinion – as expressed to ministers through the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser.”

“That’s the right way for it to have been done,” he said.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has decided to ease restrictions with further plans drawn to help curb unemployment and other losses while churches and place of worship will be opened from June 15.

Mr. Johnson, anticipated to give a speech about reopening the United Kingdom, is said to be drawing out plans for opening outdoor events, cafes, and other happenings in the coming weeks.

Furthermore, Professor John has urged Boris Johnson not to ease the lockdown until the COVID-19 pandemic is adequately under control.

“We absolutely don’t want any more relaxation [of lockdown measures] until we are confident that the test and trace system is working both at the national and local level,” Niall Dickson, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told The Observer.