Epidemiologist Reflects on Pandemic Response Shortcomings
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Prof Edmunds missed a key report showing 850 COVID outbreaks in UK care homes in April 2020; this was a pivotal moment showing the care home crisis.
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The UK government failed to properly protect care homes early on; over 45,000 care home residents died from COVID during the first 2 years of the pandemic.
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As an epidemiology adviser, Edmunds passed analyses to Whitty and Vallance to present to the government, but realized senior politicians barely read Sage reports.
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Edmunds believes he failed to properly explain his views on achieving herd immunity in early interviews, leading to public confusion on his stance.
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Looking back, Edmunds wishes he had put more resources into modeling the economic impacts of lockdowns to better inform pandemic decision-making.