LONDON – A scientist whose modeling helped set Britain’s coronavirus strategy said Tuesday that the country’s death toll could have been cut in half if lockdown had been introduced a week earlier.Britain has the second-highest confirmed death toll in the world from COVID-19, at more than 41,000.
Including cases where coronavirus was suspected but not confirmed by a test, the total is over 50,000.Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, told lawmakers that when key decisions were being made in March, scientists underestimated how widely the virus had spread in the U.K.He told Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee that “the epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions.