First Covid inquiry report to show UK plan failures

[sl8]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c29dzp2z5y6o

See also muriel_volestrangler's post, below, with Guardian article and link to the now released report.

First Covid inquiry report to show UK plan failures

11 hours ago
By Nick Triggle, Health correspondent, BBC News
Jim Reed, Health reporter, BBC News

The failures and weaknesses in the UK's pandemic preparations are expected to be laid out in the first report published by the Covid inquiry.

Baroness Hallett, who is chairing the public inquiry, will set out her findings at lunchtime.
Her report will cover the state of the healthcare system, stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the planning that was in place.

It is the first of at least nine reports covering everything from political decision-making to vaccines and the impact on children.

[...]

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https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c0wdyg72770t

Several current/recent BBC articles about the Covid inquiry, including:

Scotland not properly prepared for pandemic – Covid inquiry

UK 'failed citizens' with flawed pandemic plans

What is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work?

Leaked government texts sent to Covid-19 inquiry

and more.

[Lovie777]

1. COVID and Bird Flu............................

ugh

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Report now published - "Hancock and Hunt failed to prepare UK for pandemic, Covid inquiry finds"

The former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock have been criticised for their failure to better prepare the UK for the pandemic in a damning first report from the Covid inquiry that calls for a major overhaul in how the government prepares for civil emergencies.

Hunt, who was the health secretary from 2012-18, and Hancock, who took over until 2021, were named by the chair to the inquiry, Heather Hallett, for failing to rectify flaws in contingency planning ahead of the pandemic, which claimed more than 230,000 lives in the UK.

The government had focused largely on the threat of an influenza outbreak despite the fact that coronaviruses in Asia and the Middle East in the preceding years meant “another coronavirus outbreak at a pandemic scale was foreseeable” and to overlook that was “a fundamental error”.

“It was not a black swan event,” Lady Hallett said in a 240-page report that concluded: “The processes, planning and policy of the civil contingency structures within the UK government and devolved administrations and civil services failed their citizens.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/18/hancock-and-hunt-failed-to-prepare-uk-for-pandemic-covid-inquiry-finds

[sl8]

3. Excellent, thank you. nt