British Public Are Failed by Flawed Planning for COVID-19 Pandemic
Britain let down its citizens by leaving the nation ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic because of significantly flawed planning and failures by ministers and scientific experts, a public inquiry concluded in a scathing report on Thursday.
Britain recorded more than 230,000 deaths by December 2023, a similar death rate to the United States and Italy but higher than elsewhere in western Europe, while the nation’s finances are still suffering.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered an inquiry in May 2021, and its first report was damning, saying had preparation been better, the financial and human cost might have been less.
“I have no hesitation in concluding that the processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures across the UK failed the citizens of all four nations,” said the inquiry chair, former judge Heather Hallett.
Her inquiry’s first module has only examined Britain’s preparedness, and later reports will provide assessments of the more politically charged issues of decision-making during the pandemic against a backdrop of widespread accusations of government incompetence.
Rishi Sunak, the finance minister during the pandemic who later became prime minister, was also fined for breaking lockdown rules at the time.
New Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party this month replaced the Conservatives in power after 14 years, said the report confirmed what many people had believed.
The campaign group COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK welcomed Hallett’s recommendations but said she had not gone far enough in addressing the issue of health inequalities that had made the UK more vulnerable.
