The first report conducted by the Covid Inquiry in the UK has revealed significant flaws in the pandemic planning that led to more deaths and economic costs than it should have. The 217-page report called for radical reform of the systems, stating that the government, as well as devolved nations, “failed their citizens”. Groupthink by scientists and too little challenge from ministers were amongst the reasons blamed, with the report stating that the UK had planned for the wrong pandemic – a mild one where spread of a new virus was inevitable – and this led to the UK turning to “untested” lockdowns. The report also pointed out that the UK lacked resilience, with high rates of ill-health and public services running close to, if not beyond, capacity. By the end of 2023, 235,000 people had died from Covid.
Baroness Hallett, the Inquiry Chair, stated that the UK was “ill-prepared for dealing with a catastrophic emergency, let alone the coronavirus pandemic”. The report makes a series of recommendations, including taking responsibility for pandemic planning away from the Department of Health and Social Care and creating a ministerial-level body in each nation, chaired by the leader or deputy leader, with responsibility for all types of civil emergency that every department feeds into. It also suggests the creation of a new independent body to advise on civil emergencies and assess the state of preparation and resilience, which includes both socio-economic and scientific expertise, and proposes three-yearly pandemic response exercises to stress-test plans in place.
Naomi Fulop of the Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the inquiry was “hard-hitting and clear-sighted” and urged the new government to adopt the recommendations, stating that the inquiry did not go far enough in terms of what undermined the UK’s ability to respond – the inequalities within society and the state of public services. The report highlights a contrast between the approach taken by the UK and countries in East Asia which had learnt from outbreaks of two coronaviruses – Sars and Mers – over the past two decades. They had plans in place to quickly ramp up test-and-trace systems, and established processes for quarantine.
The UK pandemic strategy dated back to 2011 and was based on the idea that spread of a new virus was inevitable, rather than one already known about. The report cited part of the blame for the failings as the groupthink that was prevalent in its planning, with scientific advice received by ministers being too narrowly focused, and not enough consideration given to the socio-economic impacts. Brexit, or at least the planning for a no-deal Brexit, was also a factor in the failures. In 2016, a major cross-government training exercise was carried out, called Exercise Cygnus, to see how officials would respond to an outbreak of a new influenza pandemic, which identified worryingly large gaps in the response
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