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Covid inquiry: Failure to consider 'potentially massive impact' of
lockdown pre-pandemic
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Coronavirus public inquiry
A volunteer paints red hearts on the National Covid Memorial Wall in
Westminster
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Jim Reed and Michelle Roberts
BBC News
The "potentially massive impact" of lockdowns on society was not thought
through before the pandemic, the lead lawyer for the Covid inquiry has said.
As the probe into the government's handling of the pandemic began
hearing evidence, Hugo Keith KC said the UK may not have been well
prepared "at all".
It was "extraordinary" that lockdowns had received little thought, he added.
Government figures show 227,321 people have died in the UK with Covid
mentioned on their death certificate.
Mr Keith told the first public hearing that the virus had caused "death,
misery, and incalculable loss".
He said while Covid could not have been avoided, the key issue was
whether its impact on the UK was inevitable.
There was "very little debate" about whether a national lockdown could
be needed ahead of the pandemic or whether it could be avoided, Mr Keith
told the inquiry, adding that there was a failure to think through the
consequences for education and the economy.
On Tuesday, Mr Keith was addressing the inquiry as it prepares to take
oral evidence from its first witnesses later in the week.
Its first topic - or module - will examine how well prepared the UK was
for Covid up to January 2020.
Mr Keith said: "Even at this stage, before hearing the evidence, it is
apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all."
What is the UK Covid-19 inquiry?
It is about going through what happened and learning lessons
No-one will be found guilty or innocent
Any recommendations made do not have to be adopted by governments
The inquiry has no formal deadline but is due to hold public hearings
until 2026
Scotland is holding a separate inquiry in addition to the wider UK one
What is the UK Covid inquiry and how long will it take?
Media caption,
Watch: Bereaved families express their loss in a film shown to the inquiry
Chair Baroness Hallett pledged that the inquiry into the handling of the
coronavirus pandemic would be the "thorough investigation" that the
public deserves.
The former High Court judge paid tribute to a "dignified vigil" of
bereaved family members holding a silent protest outside of the building.
Lady Hallett said there were three key questions to be answered for the
"millions of people who have suffered and continue to suffer":
Was the UK properly prepared for a pandemic?
Was the response to it appropriate?
And can we learn lessons for the future?
This first part of the inquiry will hear from key politicians, civil
servants, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, groups
representing victims and their relatives and more.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group has criticised the
inquiry's timetable and says people have been "excluded from sharing key
evidence".
They branded the inquiry's Every Story Matters project - where members
of the public can share their experience with the inquiry through a
website - an "inadequate" process because stories will be anonymised and
summarised and possibly "open to bias and interpretation by third parties".
Addressing critics of the inquiry, Lady Hallett said she hoped they
would understand the difficult balance she has had to strike.
"I am listening to them, their loss will be recognised, they will be
able to contribute to the inquiry."
Mr Keith, counsel to the inquiry, said UK was "taken by surprise" over
"significant aspects" of the pandemic, including lockdowns.
"Extraordinary though it may seem, given that it's a word that's forever
seared in the nation's consciousness, there was very little debate
pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary in the
event of a runaway virus, let alone how a lockdown could be avoided.
"Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, how
something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown
could be put in place at all.
"Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the
potentially massive impact on education and on the economy."
He said the UK had been preparing for an outbreak more similar to flu,
and questioned how well placed and funded the NHS was to cope.
"No amount of foresight or planning can guarantee that a country will
not make mistakes when a disease strikes, but that does not mean that we
should not strive to be as ready as we sensibly can be," Mr Keith said.
"No country can be perfectly prepared, but it can certainly be
underprepared."
Mr Keith highlighted "shocking" data showing that Covid mortality was
two-and-a-half times higher in some of the most deprived parts of the UK
than the richest, with people in some ethnic minority groups or with a
disability far more likely to be infected or die of the disease.
To what extent those outcomes could and should have been foreseen and
mitigated would be a "big question" in module one, he said.
The wider political environment will also be considered including the
possible impact of Brexit on emergency planning.
"Did the attention paid to the risks of a no-deal Brexit - Operation
Yellowhammer as it was known - drain resources and capacity that should
have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic?" Mr Keith asked.
"Or did that generic and operational planning, in fact, lead to people
being better trained and well-marshalled, and in fact better prepared to
deal with Covid?
"On the evidence so far... we very much fear that it was the former."
The inquiry will also examine if the collapse of the power-sharing
agreement in Northern Ireland damaged the ability of authorities to plan
and respond to the pandemic.
Mr Keith said it was unlikely we will ever know how Covid started -
whether it emerged from a lab leak or from farmed wild animals that were
sold in Wuhan. Nor when the first human infection happened, he said.
"For this inquiry's purposes, this knowledge does not matter."
In his opening remarks, Pete Weatherby KC, counsel for the Covid-19
Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the "closest to an overall
plan" to deal with Covid in 2020 was a 2011 document drawn up to protect
the UK from an outbreak of influenza.
"With a pandemic, time is of the essence and lost time is measured in
lives," he said.
"The families expect the evidence will show… little or no ministerial
leadership and the chaos of committees which led to poor planning and
ultimately a reactive rather than a proactive response to the virus."
In response to the Brexit claims, a spokesperson for the prime minister
said the government would not be responding to every issue raised in the
inquiry.
He added that it would be up to the government to respond at the
appropriate stage.
WhatsApp Messages
Lady Hallett has asked to see ex-prime minister Boris Johnson's
unredacted WhatsApp messages between him and around 40 politicians and
officials, but this is being challenged by his successor, Rishi Sunak.
The Cabinet Office launched a legal challenge against the request,
arguing some of the messages were irrelevant. This is thought to be the
first time a government has taken legal action against its own public
inquiry.
Mr Johnson said he was "perfectly content" for the inquiry to have
WhatsApp messages sent after May 2021. Earlier messages are not
available because his mobile phone was involved in a security breach and
has not been used since.
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said he was happy to share his
messages, although many of these have already been leaked by the
journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who helped Mr Hancock write his book,
Pandemic Diaries.
In a statement about the back-and-forth over the messages, Rishi Sunak's
spokesperson said it "is still ongoing" and will "obviously... be
resolved through the normal process".
"Broadly, we continue to provide tens of thousands of pieces of
information to the inquiry, 55,000 documents over the past 11 months and
we will do so in the spirit of transparency and candour."
Covid WhatsApp message row
How many Covid deaths have there been?
The UK saw one of the worst first waves of Covid in Europe in spring 2020.
In April and May that year, about 160,000 deaths were registered: 60,000
more than you'd expect based on the years just before the pandemic.
But by that winter the UK had been overtaken by many countries in
eastern Europe who had seemed to escape the first wave.
The UK's Office for National Statistics has continued to analyse these
figures for Europe and, as of July last year, put the UK in the middle
of the pack.
According to Department of Health figures, 227,321 people died across
the UK with Covid recorded on their death certificate.
Covid vaccines have prevented many deaths and serious illness from the
virus - more than 151m doses have been given in the UK.