Professor Peter Bradshaw

Professor of Health Policy

...considers the shortcomings of the Government’s response to the pandemic in light of the call by bereaved relatives for a public inquiry

“Bereaved relatives have called for an immediate inquiry into the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis while advocating for an urgent review of ‘life and death’ steps needed to minimise the continuing effects of the virus.  The relatives also want a guarantee that all official documents and minutes of meetings relating to the crisis will be both kept and made public.

The 450 strong Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group – backed by Liverpool-based law firm Broudie Jackson Canter that acted for the Hillsborough families – echo as the foundation for their claim the findings of an incisive independent report from the National Audit Office showing amongst an abundance of other failings, 25,000 untested patients were discharged wilfully to Care Homes from the NHS at the peak of the epidemic (NAO, 2020).  This say the Bereaved Families is powerful and comprehensive evidence of culpable Government negligence in the management of this epidemic.

The questions thus arise, whether there is indeed a case to answer and, if so, is it timely to do so at present?

Call for Covid-19 public inquiry to prevent more deaths

There is a view that we have just been unfortunate and that the Government response has been as prompt as possible and we are doing ‘OK’, given that this is mysterious disease, the true natural history of which is little understood.  We initially thought Covid-19 was a straightforward lung disease, but as patients came in sicker it is evidently not a single entity, rather a complex multisystem inflammatory disease that attacks the brain, heart, lungs, pancreas and kidneys often with blood-clotting phenomena – so there is much more to learn.

The Prime Minister describes the pandemic as analogous to war and if this definition rings true, we are certainly by all international standards, on the losing side.  We are being outshone by almost all our comparators and especially regarding the most critical indicator of success or failure – the total death rate.  The UK fatality figure – officially 41,500 but when adjusted for excess deaths is nearer 60,000 – sees us perform far less favourably than Italy, France and Spain and we are currently surpassed only by the US and Brazil.  The Prime Minister dislikes international comparison, but who wouldn’t given we are high up the leaderboard.

It is thus no surprise against this stark mortality figure that those seeking an inquiry want a detailed investigation of those contributory factors to this significant level of carnage.

Call for Covid-19 public inquiry to prevent more deaths

It is an uncanny coincidence they say, that at almost every juncture of policy making our leaders have managed to put the cart before the horse.

From the first knowledge of Covid-19, we began sleepwalking into trouble and by the end January when airline passengers from epicentres of the infection were arriving at ports and airports unmonitored, while the Government was busy planning fireworks parties and minting new 50p pieces in celebration of Brexit.  Come March, as the virus took hold, we welcomed 250,000 Irish visitors to Cheltenham Races, entertained football fans from Athletico Madrid in a 54,000 crowd at Anfield and allowed the Manchester football derby to be played in front of 75,000!  Hence, we were late in confronting the seriousness of the threat, late on procuring PPE, respirators, testing equipment and securing adequate laboratory facilities.  Late also on deciding a testing strategy while exposing frontline staff to known risk through inadequate testing and personal protection and we were late in recognising and tackling the Care Homes catastrophe.  We pursued a herd immunity strategy against all reasonable international evidence to the contrary and were thereby, perilously late in locking down.  We were late – two months behind most countries – in introducing the quarantining of new arrivals and we have been subject to statistical sleight of hand and spin at every juncture – notably on the dubious reporting of mortality data and other tricks such as reporting the delivery of each box of 100 pairs of surgical gloves as 200 items of PPE!  And just for completion, we have the mask saga.  Government has been emphatic face masks only work in hospitals and lack scientific justification elsewhere – an argument as logical as saying parachutes do not necessarily improve safety when jumping from a plane – and now, late in the day, facemasks are now obligatory is some instances.

Call for Covid-19 public inquiry to prevent more deaths

While the grieving relatives have called for a thorough independent investigation they are not alone because 27 experts from the fields of virology, public health, epidemiology and associated fields seek not to apportion blame but to learn from experience and to prevent as second wave of infection as lockdown is eased.  Preventing this second wave is perhaps the most powerful argument in support of an inquiry simply because we are still in the midst of a very active phase of the pandemic and are lifting lockdown without having in place a provenly reliable and effective test and trace system.  Of course, Government will refuse to be scrutinised and will seek to shift the blame but we simply cannot afford a second spike.  The UK economy is perhaps the most vulnerable in the developed world and though we are promised a stimulus package in the autumn – months after Mrs Merkel and M. Macron were off the starting blocks – our economy struggles.  This is not through just bad luck but because we straightforwardly failed to suppress the virus and that we now suffer restrictions on economic activity in key service sectors such as retail and hospitality where factors such as persistent, indecisive dithering over the ‘two metre rule’ exemplifies how Government is not helping matters.

This year was caricatured at its outset as one where we would in those immortal words ‘take back control’ – yet and amidst all the boasting and blagging – it seems on this pandemic one is bound to question along with the bereaved relatives – if we have lost the plot altogether?”

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