Britain was ill-prepared for a pandemic partly because government resources had been diverted away from pandemic planning to brace for a possibly chaotic exit from the European Union without a deal, the U.K.'s former health secretary told an inquiry Tuesday.
Matt Hancock also said officials had to scramble to source protective equipment, set up mass testing and contact tracing systems “from scratch” once the coronavirus pandemic broke out because the U.K. planning attitude was entirely “geared towards how to clear up after a disaster, not prevent it.”
