'Covid-19 Inquiry: UK scientists saved us after politicians failed us'

'Covid-19 Inquiry: UK scientists saved us after politicians failed us'Mirror Health Editor Martin Bagot, who attended the Covid-19 Inquiry media lock-in, wonders where Britain would have been if it wasn't for our world class scientistsCommentsNewsopinionMartin Bagot Health and Science Editor16:40, 16 Apr 2026View 4 ImagesBoris Johnson delayed any Covid restrictions until full lockdown was inevitable(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)One thing struck me when reading the 274-page Covid-19 Inquiry report on vaccines and drugs - Britain’s pandemic could have been so much worse.‌That may seem nonsensical given 227,000 people in the UK died from Covid-19 and many more lives were changed forever during the devastating pandemic.‌I was among journalists given advanced sight of Baroness Heather Hallett’s latest report during a two hour media lock-in on Wednesday morning, which makes clear that a generation of world-leading scientists and medics came to the rescue of our bumbling political leaders.‌In earlier reports Baroness Hallett had concluded that ex-PM Boris Johnson’s pandemic government cost thousands of lives by acting too late.She has also found that the NHS was effectively "overwhelmed" during the pandemic - despite denials by Mr Johnson and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.READ MORE: Covid 19 Cicada variant ‘set to become dominant in UK - and put kids at risk'READ MORE: Covid nearly broke NHS - 'never again can nursing and the public be failed like this'View 4 ImagesProfessor Sarah Gilbert who led the team which developed the Oxford vaccine(Image: Photos by John Cairns)‌READ MORE: Covid inquiry finds UK led world on vaccines - but minority were harmedContact tracing was next to useless after the Tories outsourced “NHS Test and Trace” to firms such as Serco, which employed non-medically trained people in call centres on the minimum wage to do this vital work.Our political overlords got most of the key decisions wrong and wer...