Covid response ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’

Early handling and belief in herd immunity' led to more deaths, Commons inquiry finds

• Coronavirus - latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Britain's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a fatalistic" approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found.

Groupthink", evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately slow and gradualist" approach meant the UK fared significantly worse" than other countries, according to the 151-page Coronavirus: lessons learned to date" report led by two former Conservative ministers.