The UK's measures to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak have failed and the "scale of anger and frustration is unprecedented," according to the cover story on renowned medical journal The Lancet.

The article, written by the journal's chief editor Richard Horton, said the UK's response to the outbreak ignored "basic principles of public health and infectious disease control."

Read the original article here.

Horton's opinions were mainly based on his conversations with frontline health staff in the UK.

According to Horton, hospitals in the UK do no have enough protective suits, a direct contradiction of what was promised by England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer.

If Horton's observation is true, doctors and nurses treating the COVID-19 patients are facing the danger of getting the disease while working.

Another point made by Horton is why the UK was still caught off-guard when they were fully aware of the grave situation of the outbreak in China back in late January.

"The NHS (the UK's National Health Service) has been wholly unprepared for this pandemic. It's impossible to understand why," Horton wrote in the article.

As one of the editors of The Lancet, he is aware that the journal put on warnings about the possibility of a global outbreak in January, but the UK health service seems to have ignored them.

"February should have been used to expand coronavirus testing capacity, ensure the distribution of WHO-approved PPE, and establish training programs and guidelines to protect NHS staff", he said. "They didn't take any of those actions."

Horton said this ignorance will cause the deaths of patients and NHS staff that could have been prevented.

In conclusion, Horton quoted a health worker as saying "[the NHS response is] a national scandal" and "the gravity of that scandal has yet to be understood."