Teary ex-Scottish leader admits to feeling ‘overwhelmed’ during COVID-19 pandemic

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The Scottish leader during the COVID-19 pandemic choked up as she admitted to a public inquiry into the outbreak that she sometimes doubted whether she wanted to be first minister at such a consequential time. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the United Kingdom’s public inquiry into the pandemic on Wednesday that she sometimes felt “overwhelmed by the scale of what we were dealing with,” particularly at the start of the pandemic in the first half of 2020. Although Scotland is part of the U.K., its government has powers over matters relating to public health. She also admitted to the inquiry that she deleted WhatsApp messages but insisted that she didn’t use informal messaging such as WhatsApp to make decisions.