UK Was Too Slow on CCP Virus and 40,000 Could Die, Professor Says

Medical staff are seen at the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London, as the spread of the CCP virus continues, London, Britain, on April 17, 2020. John Sibley/Reuters

LONDON—The British government was too slow to react on a number of fronts to the CCP virus outbreak that could cause the deaths of 40,000 people in the United Kingdom, a leading public health professor told lawmakers on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially refrained from approving the stringent controls that other European leaders imposed but then closed down the country when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die in the United Kingdom.