Ex-UK health chief defends record after COVID messages leak

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s former health minister is denying wrongdoing after a newspaper published extracts of private messages he sent in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. The Daily Telegraph said the exchanges show that then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock ignored scientific advice to test everyone entering nursing homes for COVID-19. Hancock said Wednesday that the WhatsApp messages had been deceptively edited, with key lines omitted to give a “distorted account.” Hancock said he had wanted to test everyone entering care homes for the coronavirus, but the U.K. lacked the capacity at the time. The virus spread rapidly through nursing homes in the initial months of Britain’s first outbreak in 2020, leading to around 20,000 deaths.