By Ben Kerrigan-
The UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was “too little, too late”, the chairwoman of the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry has said.
In a statement read following the release of the inquiry’s latest damning report, Baroness Heather Hallett said: “I can summarise my findings of the response as too little too late.
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“All four governments failed to appreciate the scale of the threat or the urgency of response it demanded in the early part of 2020, relying in part on misleading assurances that the UK was properly prepared for a pandemic.”
A total lockdown could have been avoided in 2020 if restrictions had been introduced sooner, the report said. And more than 20,000 lives could have been spared across that spring and summer had the orders come just seven days earlier.
The findings were published in hundreds of pages across two volumes on Thursday afternoon, covering government decision-making from when the virus first emerged in early 2020 through to early 2022, and painting a picture of chaotic decision-making at the heart of government.
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The central players who presided over the government’s ‘chaotic’ Covid pandemic response
Boris Johnson and his chief adviser reinforced a “toxic and chaotic culture” in Downing Street that undermined efforts to deal with the pandemic, the Covid Inquiry has found.
Baroness Heather Hallett’s report on the response to Covid-19 criticised Mr Johnson’s excessive optimism in the face of the looming pandemic and inability to make key lockdown decisions.
Sophie Dodgeon, Head of Campaigns and Public Affairs at the RNIB, said: “Today’s report lays bare how the UK government too often failed to recognise and respond to the needs of disabled people, including blind and partially sighted people.
“Prior to the pandemic, Baroness Hallett notes that planning ought to have taken place, as to how disabled people would be protected from both Covid-19 and the impact of restrictions such as a lockdown.
Once the pandemic took root, blind and partially sighted people were affected not only by the virus itself but by the measures introduced to respond to the pandemic, yet it took months for the need for accessible communications (braille, large print, audio etc) to be understood.
One year into the pandemic we are told the UK Government’s Disability Unit remained concerned about a lack of disability data even to understand the impact on different groups.
“We strongly welcome the recognition that all laws and guidance must be in accessible formats. We urge the UK government and devolved administrations to improve their understanding of the effects of sight loss and account for this in policy making and future pandemic and disaster planning. Never again must decisions affecting all aspects of people’s daily lives be made without involving blind and partially sighted and disabled people from
“Prior to the pandemic, Baroness Hallett notes that planning ought to have taken place, as to how disabled people would be protected from both Covid-19 and the impact of restrictions such as a lockdown.
Once the pandemic took root, blind and partially sighted people were affected not only by the virus itself, but by the measures introduced to respond to the pandemic. Yet, it took months for the need for accessible communications (braille, large print, audio etc) to be understood. One year into the pandemic we are told the UK Government’s Disability Unit remained concerned about a lack of disability data even to understand the impact on different groups.
The pandemic saw the distinction between those dying with the virus and those with pre-existing illness wildly blurred, and the hospitals as the government sought to keep members of the British public at home and not mixing.
Covid 19 patients who died with pre-existing illnesses where recorded as having lost their lives as a result of the trigger to their comorbidities. Comorbidities are two or more distinct medical conditions that exist in the same person at the same time.
The conditions can interact and exacerbate each other, and therefore are treated as a whole. Critics argue that without establishing how serious the pre-existing condition was before the virus struck, it was inaccurate to number such patients amongst those killed by the virus.
In the absence of clear facts, the official position is that better preparation would have saved more lives.
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