A nation off-guard: what the UK Covid inquiry has revealed

Six weeks of hearings have seen arguments about pandemic planning bound up with old battles over Brexit and austerity

Covid inquiry hears call for more cash for public health

Some witnesses made tearful apologies; others defiantly denied fault. After six weeks of hearings at the UK Covid-19 public inquiry, the evidence about the UK’s preparedness for the Covid pandemic is in.

The nation was caught badly off guard. That much was probably obvious. By 1 March 2021 the UK had suffered more than 180 Covid deaths per 100,000 people; in South Korea, the number was just three. But after hearing the evidence, the bereaved families put it bluntly: we were “catastrophically unprepared”.

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