
The former chancellor questioned if we would “all have gone into lockdown if China had not locked down in January and February”.
“I think the Chinese lockdown is what gives the rest of the world the idea,” he told the inquiry in his evidence.
“And it’s the overwhelming of the hospital system in northern Italy. That then leads all Western governments to reach basically the same conclusion which is we’ve got to do what the Chinese have done in order to try and preserve our capacity and our emergency wards.”
He says he wondered if they had done a table top exercise whether they’d have come to the conclusion the population could be put under lockdown.
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