Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson claims Britain’s death toll would have been HALVED if draconian measures were introduced one week earlier
Britain’s coronavirus death toll could have been halved if stay at home measures were introduced a week earlier, ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson has claimed.
Boris Johnson introduced the lockdown on March 23 on the back of the Imperial College London scientist’s grim modelling, which predicted 500,000 people could die if the virus was left unchecked.
Professor Ferguson said that, based on what was known about transmission and fatalities at the time, the draconian measures were implemented at the correct time.
But he conceded that, in hindsight, if the lockdown had come a week earlier then around 20,000 lives could have been saved.
Professor Ferguson made the stark admission at a virtual House of Commons Science and Technology Committee briefing.
It is one of only a handful of public appearances made by the former SAGE scientist who was forced to stand down from the group after flouting stay at home rules to have secret trysts with his married mistress
Britain has officially suffered 40,000 deaths where Covid-19 was the definite cause of death – the most in Europe and only second to the US.
Britain’s death toll from COVID-19 could have been halved if lockdown was introduced a week earlier, ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson has claimed
Professor Ferguson told the committee today: ‘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 then reduced the final death toll by at least a half,’ Ferguson said.
‘So whilst I think the measures … were warranted … certainly had we introduced them earlier, we would have seen many fewer deaths.’