LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2020) The United Kingdom's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has conceded that the outcome of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK has "not been good" and that some of the government's decisions will eventually prove to have been the wrong ones in retrospect.
Official figures show that nearly 300,000 cases have been detected across the UK's four countries, with over 45,000 deaths as a result.
"It's clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think you can be absolutely clear about that," Vallance told the Commons Science and Technology Committee.
The adviser went on to say that there is a band of well-connected countries in the temperate zone - alluding to the prosperous global north - that have done "less well."
"There are many factors that are going to play [in this] as we look and say, 'what is it that makes some countries having done worse than others?', and there will be decisions made that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time," Vallance said.
Vallance, who heads the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which advised the government throughout the pandemic, in March was quoted as saying that 55,000 deaths would be "a good result."
A day prior, Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured members of parliament that an independent investigation will be launched into the government's conduct once the pandemic has subsided.
