The government has panicked "on the basis of a forecast of 500,000 deaths".

Rating

This figure refers to a report by Prof Neil Ferguson, who worked as a government adviser in the early stages of the pandemic. It predicted there could be 500,000 deaths if the government did not take action to control the spread of the virus. In fact, the government has been criticised for underreacting. Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London said "evidence suggests that waiting on lockdown in March cost tens of thousands of lives."

Reviewed by BBC Reality Check ↗ · October 29, 2020