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Nationwide lockdowns in the UK during the pandemic were a “failure” of public health policy as they were not considered a last resort, an epidemiology expert has said.
Giving evidence at the Covid-19 public inquiry on Monday, Prof Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh – a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O) – said the group failed to adequately assess the negative consequences of a nationwide lockdown.
Woolhouse, who specialises in infectious diseases and epidemiology, also criticised the phrase “going early, going hard”, used by the UK’s then chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, in regard to the rapid implementation of a strict lockdown, claiming that in the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic it would not have been effective, as completely eradicating the virus was not an option at that time.
He added: “I remember Patrick [Vallance] and others repeated it several times: ‘Go hard, go early and go wider than you would have.’ Now that, for me, is a good maxim in a particular situation where your strategic objective is to eradicate the virus – you’re going to try and clear it out completely.
In which case this ‘go hard, go early, go wide’ is going to mean severe restrictions,” Woolhouse said.
Although Woolhouse told the inquiry that he supported lockdown at the time, with hindsight he questioned whether the measures were entirely necessary, before adding that lockdown was “a failure of public health policy”.
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