As much as I hate to give any Tory the benefit of doubt on anything.

His main argument.

“Nobody has yet provided me with an alternative that was available at the time that would have saved more lives,”

Dose sound like a reasonable question to ask.

This was before the availability of fast testing. And before any nightingale hospitals had been build.

Hospitals were overloaded staff wise. Even with all non urgent care stopped.

Their was a well documented lack of PPE. So hardly possible for the gov to do more to help care homes keep residents more separated.

At the time. Their really dose seems like very little else he could have done.

BUT:

The NHS did have plans and resources for pandemics. plans the Tory party removed support for during austerity.

Not to mention the risk of a pandemic has been a well known one since the mid 1990s. Yet still the Tories considered shutting down the minimal support the NHS had. As a tax saving measure. (Because allowing the Tories to keep low corp and capital gains taxes was the real reason).

Yes the report and HandsonCock never considered this as a cause.