A leading Oxford expert has claimed that coronavirus peaked a week before the government placed the UK into lockdown.
Professor Carl Heneghan, of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, says that data shows coronavirus infection rates halved after Boris Johnson told people to wash their hands.
On 16 March the government announced the hand washing measures and told people to stay at least 2 metres apart.
Professor Heneghan said the government have โlost sightโ of the scientific evidence and placed the UK into a lockdown on 23 March.
He also said that government scientific advisors have been โconsistently wrong during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Professor praised Sweden for โholding their nerveโ by โavoiding a doomsday scenarioโ as they have not enforced a lockdown.
Sweden has recorded 14,386 cases of infection, which places per capita an infection rate of 140 per 100,000 people.
A total of 1,540 deaths have been recorded, with a fatality rate of 15 per 100,000, compared to the UKs 182 people per 100,000 who have caught coronavirus, and 24 per 100,000 are dying from the virus.
Swedenโs economy is more stable than most European countries as they have no lockdown measures.
A quarter of Britons, or 1.4m have applied for unemployment benefits whilst Sweden has seen less than 6% claiming benefits.
Professor Heneghan, also a practising GP told the MailOnline, โThe UK government keeps saying it is using the best science.
โBut it appears to be losing sight of whatโs actually going on.
โWeโve been getting scientific advice that is consistently wrong.
โIt has failed to look at all the data and understand when the peak of infections actually occurred.
โThe peak of deaths occurred on 8 April, and if you understand that then you work backwards to find the peak of infections.
โThat would be 21 days before then, right before the point of lockdown.โ
The Professor is referring to the delay it takes for a person to fall very sick and then die, which is an average of three weeks.
Britons with an upper respiratory tract infection, fell from 20 per 100,000 people on 15 March, up to 12 to six days later, data shows.
Professor Heneghan added, โ50% reductions in infections occurred on 16 March, right when hand washing and social distancing was introduced.
โIf you go look at whatโs happening in Sweden, they are holding their nerve and they havenโt had doomsday scenario.
โOur government has got it completely the wrong way around.โ
He criticised the government for the draconian lockdown measures and warned over the damage to the economy.
He added, โLook at our partners [EU]. They’re opening up again.
โWe should be reopening society.
โWe need to get a plan in place rapidly, we canโt wait three weeks then slowly open up.
โAs well as major economic issues, austerity will impact people’s physical and mental health.
โThe second issue of lockdown is that it’s making the public scared to engage with healthcare.
โPeople are avoiding going to GPs and hospitals because they believe there is so much infection there that they might catch it. Thatโs really damaging.โ
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