Public were failed as UK prepared for wrong pandemic,Covid inquiry finds

THE public were failed by the Government and civil service due to significant flaws in pandemic preparedness, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has found.

- Hanna Geissler

Presenting the first 217-page report from the inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett set out a litany of shortfalls which meant the country was poorly equipped to cope with such a "foreseeable" outbreak.

High levels of heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illness and obesity meant the UK lacked resilience, the report found.

And its health and social care systems were "running close to, if not beyond, capacity in normal times".

Major errors in preparation included the lack of a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate infected people.

Pandemic planning documents were described as "outdated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and infected by jargon", while the institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning throughout government were "labyrinthine".

The inquiry also found the UK "prepared for the wrong pandemic" by focusing on flu, despite recent epidemics of SARS and MERS which were both caused by coronaviruses.