LONDON – The UK government was ill-prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic It is serious errors in planning has failed its citizens, an inquiry found on Thursday.
Retired judge Heather Hallett, who leads the ongoing investigationsaid the government mistakenly believed in 2019, it was one of the best-prepared countries in the world for an outbreak and anticipated the wrong pandemic – the flu.
“That belief was dangerously mistaken,” Hallett said in releasing his first report. “In reality, the UK was ill-prepared to deal with the civil emergency of a system-wide pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually hit.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for more than 235,000 deaths in the UK by the end of 2023 – one of the highest death tolls in the world.
“Today’s report confirms what many have always believed – that the UK was ill-prepared for COVID-19 and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens,” said the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, referring to England, Northern Ireland. , Scotland and Wales.
“The country’s security must always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry and implementing better measures to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic,” he said.
The inquiry’s first report, based on hearings beginning in June 2023, focused only on pandemic preparedness and did not blame any individual.
A second phase that will look at the government’s response, including the “partygate” scandal in which then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his team broke their own rules by organizing working groups, is scheduled for later. A third phase will analyze the lessons that can be learned from the country’s handling of the crisis. The inquiry is expected to hold hearings until 2026.
Hallett found that an outdated 2011 flu pandemic strategy was not flexible enough to adapt to a crisis nearly a decade later and was abandoned almost immediately.
“There were fatal strategic flaws that underpin the assessment of the risks facing the UK, how those risks and their consequences could be managed and prevented from worsening, and how the State should respond,” Hallett said.
There was also a lack of focus on what was needed to deal with a rapidly transmissible disease, and not enough was done to create a system to test, track and isolate infected patients.
Hallett said in his 217-page report that the UK needs to be better prepared for the next pandemic – which could be even more deadly.
“The UK will once again face a pandemic which, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and enormous financial costs and the most vulnerable in society will suffer most,” she said.
Hallett recommended that a new pandemic strategy be developed and tested every three years, and that government and political leaders be responsible for implementing preparedness and resilience systems. She also said outside experts should be used to prevent “the well-known problem of groupthink.”
“Unless lessons are learned and fundamental changes are implemented, this effort and cost will have been for nothing when it comes to the next pandemic,” Hallett said. a lot of suffering.”
Elkan Abrahamson, who represents the nearly 7,000 members of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice organization, applauded Hallett for adopting most of his recommendations to prevent a repeat of the disaster.
“However, it is extremely disappointing that the vulnerable have been ignored in the recommendations and there have been no proposals to tackle racial inequality, health inequalities or the effects of austerity,” said Abrahamson.
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