UK public was 'failed' by government during the coronavirus pandemic
The Covid-19 inquiry delivered its scathing first report on Thursday, criticising the 'serious errors on the part of the state' and saying that the UK's pandemic planning was full of 'fatal strategic flaws'.
The 240-page report is the first of at least 10 due to be released, running into at least 2026. Over 235,000 deaths involving the viruses were recorded in the UK up to the end of 2023.
'Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering,' said former Court of Appeal judge and inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett. A 'damaging absence of focus' on the interventions required to keep the 'catastrophic emergency' of the Covid pandemic in check were to blame,' she said.
'The harrowing testimony of loss and grief given by the bereaved witnesses and others who suffered during the pandemic' prove the necessity of the inquiry and the need for 'radical reform,' she added.
The impact on the NHS, its operations, its waiting lists and on elective care has been 'immense'. Millions of patients either did not seek or did not receive treatment and the backlog for treatment has reached 'historically high levels'.
A major flaw was the lack of 'a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate' people. While Lady Hallett acknowledged that this would be costly: 'The massive financial, economic and human cost of the Covid-19 pandemic is proof that, in the area of preparedness and resilience, money spent on systems for our protection is vital and will be vastly outweighed by the cost of not doing so.'
Former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock were criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic. The report calls for a radical overhaul in how the government prepares for civil emergencies.
Lady Hallett also noted that high pre-existing levels of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, respiratory conditions and general poor health meant that the UK was more vulnerable.
In a written statement responding to the report, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his 'top priority' was to ensure that 'the UK is prepared for a future pandemic, as well as the broadest range of potential risks facing our country.'
Lady Hallett has warned that the UK must be better prepared for the next pandemic. 'There will likely be a next time. The expert evidence suggests it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when’.'
'The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic - potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal – is likely to occur in the near to medium future. That means that the UK will again face a pandemic that, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most.'
What were the UK's flaws when preparing for Covid?
The inquiry found that the UK's plan for dealing with Covid failed the nation in several respects:
The UK government planned for the 'wrong pandemic', focusing on one disease – influenza – and the level of preparedness was 'inadequate for a global pandemic of the kind that struck'.
Its sole pandemic strategy, from 2011, was outdated and lacked adaptability. It did not adequately consider prevention or proportionality of response or the economic and social consequences. As a result, 'it was virtually abandoned on its first encounter' with Covid.
The institutions responsible for emergency planning were 'labyrinthine in their complexity'.
There was a failure to appreciate the full extent of the impact of government measures and long-term risks on those with poor health or other vulnerabilities, as well as a failure to engage appropriately with 'those who know their communities best, such as local authorities, the voluntary sector and community groups'.
A 'damaging absence of focus' on measures, interventions and infrastructure required for a pandemic, especially a scaleable system that could be used to 'test, trace and isolate in the event of a pandemic.' Despite the documentation volume, planning was 'insufficiently robust and inflexible' and 'unnecessarily bureaucratic.'
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