public health failures the uk has ever experienced. despite the uk being one of the first countries in the world to develop a test for covid, the report described the roll out of the test and trace system as slow, uncertain and often chaotic. but the report has praised the uk s vaccination programme and government support for the development of vaccines desribing the programme as one of the most effective initiatives in history. the pandemic has claimed more than 150,000 lives to date. this report is from our health correspondent, jim reed. we are still living through, says this report, the biggest health crisis of the last 100 years. millions have been infected, many thousands of lives have been lost to covid.
report because i think it is very fair and balanced under points fingers to things that we have done badly in the past, but also things we can put right now and going forward. we can save many thousands of lives and people with long term illness and disability. that in turn puts a huge toll on the health service, and i think really need to be really mindful that our health and social care staff are exhausted and social care staff are exhausted and burnt out and we need to ensure we drive down community transmission to a low level. it is over 40,000 again, this is unnecessary and avoidable and if we can learn the lessons of this excellent report that that community level can be driven right down and we can protect people from death, from long term illness and protect our health and social care staff. social care staff. professor susan michie, it has social care staff. professor susan michie, it has been social care staff. professor susan michie, it has been a social care staff. p
personal capacity on bbc news. thank you forjoining us, professor. what struck out the most for you reading this report? in struck out the most for you reading this report? this report? in addition to the comments this report? in addition to the comments already this report? in addition to the comments already made, - this report? in addition to the j comments already made, one this report? in addition to the - comments already made, one thing that struck out was the failure to learn from other countries, and that struck out because it is really important right now in terms of what lessons we can learn from other countries that are managing the pandemic so much better than we are. i think we can learn three main things that are really relevant right now and going forward into this winter which we know will be a risky time. the first is getting test, trace and isolate into the local public health infrastructure run by the director of public health. the second is about getting good
we might even have saved half the number of deaths in that initial wave. everyone accepts that we locked down too late. across 150 pages of the report, there is more criticism. it describes the roll out of the test and trace programme in england as slow and chaotic. it says the uk did not impose rigorous border controls, letting in high numbers of infections from france and spain. it criticises the treatment of care homes, saying the risks were not recognised soon enough, leading to devastating and preventable repercussions. the report has actually picked up things we were saying from the outset, that social care was an afterthought. the mantra was nhs, we have to keep it safe. we understood some of that. what we did not know was the discharge out of hospitals was actually not through testing. they were not safe discharges. there was though praise for parts of the national response.
reports many, many times about the importance of engaging with the relevant communities and listening to them and allowing those points of view to inform policy. for several reasons, one is you are more likely to get good decision making if the relevant communities are engaged and secondly communities are more likely to trust government, and here too sometimes challenging measures they are asked to engage with, if they have been involved in the process of decision making. 50 have been involved in the process of decision-making. decision-making. so what was the oint of decision-making. so what was the point of this decision-making. so what was the point of this report? decision-making. so what was the point of this report? why - decision-making. so what was the point of this report? why not i decision-making. so what was the point of this report? why not go . point of this report? why not go straight for the public inquiry? public inquiries take a long time to set up, i do not even