Matt Hancock apologizes for UK's pandemic planning, criticizes focus on deaths

Former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has criticized the country's pandemic planning, stating that it was too focused on dealing with deaths rather than averting them.

He acknowledged that some may find his apology hard to take and praised workers across health and social care during the pandemic.

Hancock was asked about the recommendations from Exercise Cygnus, a three-day test run in 2016, which concluded that the UK's plans were not sufficient to cope with a severe pandemic.

Hancock stated that some work on the recommendations had been paused due to the need to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, but he was not convinced that the country would have been in a better place even if all the recommendations had been addressed.

Hancock described the government's approach to pandemics as flawed and stated that they needed to prepare for containment rather than just cleaning up after a disaster.