Britain’s coronavirus death toll would be half its current total if the country had locked down a week earlier, according to the scientist who prompted Boris Johnson to lock down the UK.
Giving evidence at the science and technology select committee, professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling helped shape the coronavirus response strategy, said thousands of deaths could have been prevented if the UK had acted sooner.
"We knew the epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions were introduced, so had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half," Mr Ferguson said.
At the Downing Street briefing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "all judgements will need to be examined in the fullness of time".
It was a sentiment echoed by the government's chief science adviser, Patrick Vallance
"There’s time to go back and do all of that analysis," he said. "Those are important scientific questions to address and they haven’t yet been fully addressed."
Professor Ferguson estimated the final death toll could be up to 50,000, which suggests that some 25,000 lives could have been saved.
The epidemiologist resigned from the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, otherwise known as Sage, in May for breaching lockdown rules to meet his married lover.
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