The second round of public hearings examining the UK's handling of the COVID pandemic - Penny Mordaunt says her WhatsApp messages went missing

Health & Diet Health & Diet: In The News
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67498212

12:34

Kemi Badenoch appears at Covid Inquiry

During the pandemic, ethnic minorities in the UK were much more likely to both catch Covid and to die of it. People from Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black-Caribbean backgrounds were the worst hit.

The impact was devastating. In the first wave of the pandemic, Black people were four times more likely than white people to die of Covid. South-Asians were twice as likely. A disparity remained until the start of this year, when the Covid minority death gap finally closed.

As Minister for Equalities during the pandemic, Kemi Badenoch was an instrumental figure in trying to address this. There were a few possible explanations — one that Ms Badenoch pointed to herself at the time was that people from the worst-affected communities were more likely to live in over-crowded or multi-generational households.

Ethnic minority people in the UK also were, and still are, more likely to be in insecure work, such as private hire taxi driving and food delivery work, and were also more likely to work in healthcare — jobs more likely to have been classified as “essential”.

The question for this inquiry will be, should the government have been better prepared for these differences?

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Hi

I sincerely hope that people are listening to this and the Tories lose by a huge number at the Election

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67498212

We’ve been listening to Kemi Badenoch giving evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry, as lawyers focused on her role as equalities minister during the pandemic.

  • Kemi Badenoch is being asked about a report from Public Health England on disparities in the risk and outcomes of Covid-19. That report concluded that the biggest disparity was by age – among people already diagnosed with Covid-19, people who were 80 or older were 70 times more likely to die than those under 40. It also found that Covid death rates were higher in those in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups than in white ethnic groups.

  • Badenoch recalls that originally, mortality rate disparities were thought to be due to prejudice and discrimination but, at the start of the second wave, she “realised this was wrong” and the correlation eventually spotted, which she describes as a “huge causation”, was the prevalence of multi-generational households in South Asian communities.

  • During her testimony, Badenoch was asked about the government’s level of preparedness for the impact Covid had on disabled people. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in 2020, six out of every 10 people who died with coronavirus in England – 30,296 of the 50,888 deaths – had disabilities.

  • Badenoch told the inquiry that fear and conspiracy theories undermined many of the measures her team had put in place to identify risk

  • On the spread of misinformation, Badenoch said the government does not yet have “a handle” on it, as she doesn’t believe the UK has adapted to a social media age

  • She said additional funding would not have stopped ethnic minority groups from being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, as the equalities minister claimed the propensity for infection correlated with other health conditions rather than ethnic background

  • In response to questions from Prof Leslie Thomas KC, Badenoch said there was “no silver bullet” to fight structural inequalities - “we can’t remove poverty,” she told the inquiry

  • Having a record of ethnicity on death certificates was identified by Badenoch as something that should have been done to understand ethnic disparities. “If we had had that, we might, not certainly, but we might have been able to spot the disproportionate impact a little bit earlier,” she added

I get the impression that Badonoch was a political high-flyer who found herself out of her depth (apologies for mixed metaphor). Badenoch worked as a systems analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, working as an associate director at private bank and wealth manager Coutts from 2006 to 2013 and later a digital director for The Spectator from 2015 to 2016. She may have come from middle class parents but she ended up too posh to push and way out of touch with the lower classes in general and her heritage in particular.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67523823

27/11/2023

Start of a huge week in the Covid inquiry**

Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab, Jenny Harries and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock are all giving evidence over the next five days, so there’s going to be lots of attention on Dorland House in London this week.

But first we’ll hear from three powerful metro mayors. Sadiq Khan, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will be up first today at 10:30 GMT, followed by Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham, before we hear from the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, this afternoon.

Cabinet secretary will not give evidence to inquiry this year

Before today’s hearing got under way, the inquiry’s chair, Baroness Hallett, announced the current cabinet secretary - the UK’s most senior civil servant - will not give evidence this year.

Simon Case was formally excused from appearing “due to ill health” and an update on his ability to give evidence will be given at the end of January, or when he returns to work from sick leave.

Baroness Hallett said in her ruling: “It very much remains my intention that Mr Case should give oral evidence to the inquiry.”

10:34

London mayor Sadiq Khan has now finished giving evidence to the inquiry

Brief Summary

  • London mayor Sadiq Khan says he was “kept in the dark” over the seriousness of Covid at the beginning of the pandemic
  • He tells the Covid inquiry he was not invited to early emergency Cobra meetings, and felt “almost winded” when he finally attended one in mid-March 2020
  • “I will never forget that feeling of lack of power, lack of influence, not knowing what was happening in our city,” he says
  • Khan says “lives could have been saved” if he had been invited to key meetings earlier

12:54

Andy Burnham gives evidence

Khan has now finished giving evidence to the inquiry - next up is Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, who is being sworn in.

Both of these mayors are highly vocal critics of the government’s responses to the COVID pandemic - its policies, strategies and tactics - too much for me to summarise so I’m hoping that a journalist does.

15:28

Greater Manchester mayor finishes evidence

Andy Burnham has now finished giving evidence and the inquiry is pausing for a short break.

Brief Summary

  • Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham says Covid decisions were too “London-centric”, and led to the first lockdown being lifted “too early”

  • Burnham tells the Covid inquiry the decision meant Greater Manchester had higher cases for the rest of 2020

Both men said a lot so follow the link for detailed coverage.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67523823

15:32

Steve Rotheram gives evidence

Finally today, the inquiry will take evidence from the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram.

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These mayoral evidences reflect what was also happening between Westminster and the devolved governments. Johnson viewed the UK through Westminster, indeed Downing Street, eyes only with pretty much no regard to the rest of the country. This is not to say other parts got it right all the time but Johnson’s approach was to exclude and ignore other voices. A sure sign of a weak leader.

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I see what is written and i hear what is being said and in the end nothing at all will come of this public investigation even to those who know in their hearts they did wrong or chose to turn the other cheek or even made big money out of the pandemic. No one will be held responsible and they will all carry on with their upper class life with their family holidays and big expense cheques . They wont remember those whos loved ones died alone and the pain those loved ones have to live with . Its all words and mutterings . It makes me annoyed , even all this is costing millions . For what !

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If nothing else, the dismal failings of the government in power, and particularly Johnson, Sunak and Hancock, will be exposed and recorded for posterity.

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Today we heard from three mayors about their experiences working with central government. Here are the key points:

London - Sadiq Khan

  • Khan said his first briefing from his staff about Covid came from sources such as newspapers and the web - not from government
  • The London mayor claimed he was “blocked” from attending Cobra meetings until 16 March
  • He believes lives could have been saved if he had been invited to meetings sooner as he could have lobbied for an earlier lockdown

Greater Manchester - Andy Burnham

  • Burnham said he was refused invitations to Cobra meetings and became aware of Covid through the Chinese community in Manchester
  • The mayor claimed he had to raise issues in the media “because we had no alternative”
  • He recalled that he received no notification from Nicola Sturgeon about the travel ban between Manchester and Scotland
  • Burnham said he received “minimal” notice about local restrictions on household mixing in the Greater Manchester area on 30 July
  • He called for more devolution in future emergencies

Liverpool City Region - Steve Rotheram

  • Rotheram said he was not informed people from Wuhan would be isolating in the area and found out about Covid “on the news”
  • He said there was no official channel to raise issues, and that officials would wait for the evening news to hear major announcements
  • He says his social media team dealt with threats after the PM announced - without informing him - that the region would enter tier 3

A bliddy shambles 
 thanks to the dithering BJ and his incompetent cabinet 
 :angry:

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Surely the reason for examining events and decisions in hindsight is to try to be able to avoid mistakes in the future. Imagine if a public and published enquiry had been made into preparation efforts right after the NHS pandemic planning exercise (2016 I think)? That would exposed how badly the UK was ready to deal with such a pandemic - no knowledge of PPE storage, no plans for hospitals, no plans for care home, no plans for the vulnerable, no decision making criteria for major decisions like lock down, no plans for testing, no plans for closing travel into the UK, etc. In short, it would have saved lives.

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Who is up at the Covid inquiry today?

Housing secretary Michael Gove, formerly the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, will give evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry alongside former deputy chief medical officer Professor Dame Jenny Harries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67546295

It’s not Gove’s first time at the Covid inquiry, he gave evidence back in July during the first phase which focused on official planning and preparedness in the pandemic.

Notably, he suggested Brexit meant the government was “match fit” to respond to the pandemic.

He told the inquiry civil servants “honed and refined” crisis skills as they worked up ways the UK could leave the EU.

Gove said the civil service “grew and expanded in readiness for EU exit”, meaning more staff were available to react when Covid spread across the UK.

Others had a different viewpoint:

13 July

The inquiry has previously heard that the UK paused its pandemic preparedness plans, made in the wake of the 2016 flu epidemic, to concentrate on Operation Yellowhammer - the government’s contingency plan for the disruption anticipated in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Former Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told an earlier session of the inquiry preparing for Brexit had hampered pandemic preparedness in Scotland.

Devising contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit “meant that a significant amount of time, energy and resource was diverted into that from a range of other matters,” she told the inquiry.

Similarly, Wales’ most senior medical adviser told the inquiry preparations for a no-deal Brexit held up work to plan for a future pandemic there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67546295

In the pandemic, Gove was in charge of the Cabinet Office, which was responsible for the smooth and effective running of government. Here’s what we’ve heard so far:

  • An apology - Gove began by apologising to the victims and families “who endured so much loss” because of “mistakes” made by the government in the pandemic. Watch his apology in this 74-second clip here.

  • Lockdown - Gove, like other witnesses, says “we were too slow to lock down” in March 2020, and should have taken stricter measures sooner ahead of the second lockdown at the end of 2020.

  • Missed opportunities - WhatsApp messages Gove sent to the PM’s adviser Dominic Cummings in early March 2020 show him warning “golden opportunities” were being missed. Gove wrote: “The whole situation is even worse than you think and action needs to be taken or we’ll regret it for a long time”.

  • Praise for Hancock Gove defended former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has come in for sharp criticism by some other witnesses. He says he has a “high opinion” of his ex-colleague, and “too much was asked” of his department at the beginning of the pandemic.

  • Defending Johnson - Gove said introducing restrictions in March 2020 went against Boris Johnson’s “instincts” and “political outlook”. Elsewhere, he defended his former boss, saying: “I don’t think one can single out the prime minister at the time for criticism. We all deserve our share - retrospectively - of criticism.”

  • Alternatives to lockdown - Gove said the idea of “shielding the elderly and allow young people free reign [
] would not have been effective in mitigating the virus”, and said while many advocated an approach similar to Sweden’s, the country relied on “wide societal acceptance” of restrictions.

  • Tier system - Gove says the system of having tighter restrictions in some areas of England for parts of the pandemic in late 2020 was “inherently” flawed, and he was “sceptical about its efficacy”.

  • Stay at home, vs stay alert - Gove says the Scottish government wasn’t told in advance about the change in the UK’s messaging from “stay at home” to “stay alert”. But he defended this, and said he didn’t believe it caused any detriment to the handling of the pandemic.

  • Origins of Covid - At one point, Gove noted there was a significant body of evidence that believes Covid was “man-made”, only to be told the issue was not part of the inquiry’s terms of reference. Since then, Downing Street has said the issue of Covid’s origins is an issue for the World Health Organization.

Tory slimeball, defending the indefensible 
 :roll_eyes:

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don’t worry I think the rest of the world has all got bad track records re covid - just depends how bad you came out from 0-100 - 100 being awfully bad! - we could start placing a few bets I suppose? China sorta stuffed things up a bit ?

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Professor Dame Jenny Harries has been sworn in and is giving her evidence.

A familiar face from the pandemic briefings, she is the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and a former deputy chief medical officer.

We’ll be hearing more from Professor Dame Jenny Harries in the morning, but here’s a quick recap of what she said in the last hour of today’s session:

  • Harries became a familiar face at daily Covid briefings from Downing Street during the pandemic. She said this had not been a position she had ever imagined being in and that her role was not about defending government policy
  • She was asked about comments early in the pandemic where she said the UK “has a perfectly adequate supply of PPE at the moment”
  • She told the inquiry that she was not responsible for PPE but reminds the inquiry of an apology she made soon after
  • Harries also said that her comments that the UK was a “very highly prepared country” for the pandemic feels wrong “in retrospect”
  • She said her comments were based on an “external objective assessment”, which scored the UK second out of 100 countries

A government toady who lied almost as much as Hancock 
 :roll_eyes:

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67546295

Posted at 10:0310:03

Dame Jenny Harries is up again

I have to mention this:

The inquiry is shown an evidence document from DHSC asking Harries for advice on discharging people who’ve tested positive for Covid into care homes.

In the email, Harries replied: “I believe the reality will be we will need to discharge Covid positive patients into a residential setting.” She wrote that the “numbers of people with disease will rise sharply”

Now she’s trying to squirm her way out of her statement by saying that what she wrote has been misinterpreted

The first wave of the pandemic saw an extraordinary number of excess deaths among care home residents.

Research from the University of Stirling found that by August 2020 17,127 Covid deaths had occurred in care homes - or 31% - of the total number of deaths attributed to the virus.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries is being asked about the discharge of elderly and frail patients from hospitals into residential care.

The inquiry was shown an email she sent to a colleague in the Department of Health on 16 March 2020 saying, “The reality will be that we will need to discharge Covid-19 positive patients into residential care settings.” The message said it would be “entirely clinically appropriate because the NHS will triage those to retain in acute settings who can benefit from NHS care.”

She’s trying to squirm out of that, too.

No summary available but another key point:

Harries said she voiced concern during the start of the pandemic about encouraging people to wear homemade face coverings because of a lack of evidence maintains, three years later, the evidence on face coverings is still “uncertain”

Updated January 15, 2022

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11:46

Sajid Javid is next up

Javid took over as health secretary in June 2021 after Hancock stepped down for breaking social distancing guidelines. In July 2022, he resigned as health secretary – alongside then chancellor and current PM Rishi Sunak.

13:44

With the inquiry on its lunch break, here’s a look back at what we’ve learnt so far:

Sajid Javid

  • Decision-making: Javid - who was the health secretary from June 2021 - told the inquiry many of the key decisions at the beginning of the pandemic were made by Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings - and not the PM himself
  • Leaks: He described No 10 as “dysfunctional” and added that leaks were a significant issue during his time in government

Javid didn’t attend early Cobra meetings but Treasury represented

Javid explains that the treasury was represented at those meetings and Javid says that the chancellor normally would not attend a Cobra meeting that was not chaired by the prime minister. (1)

Letter again shows focus on flu

The inquiry was just shown a letter sent by Sajid Javid when he was chancellor to the prime minister in February 2020 - the impact at that stage was again based on the “reasonable worst case scenario” of pandemic flu - as it turned out, Covid was different in key ways to the flu pandemic that had been planned for (2)

(1) So where was the PM - shacked up with Carrie?

(2) The Wrong Plan 
 :roll_eyes:

Javid denies claims Treasury was ‘at war’ with PM’s team but it emerges that Sajid Javid, the then-health secretary, wasn’t invited to a meeting on 18 December 2021 about the Omicron variant.

Posted at 14:4614:46

Sajid Javid finishes giving testimony to the inquiry

Lots of self-justification and blaming it on BJ 
 :roll_eyes:

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Dominic Raab is being sworn in right now.

He was the former deputy prime minister who stood in for Johnson at one point during the pandemic.

What did we learn today?

Here’s a look back at what we learned from Dominic Raab:

  • The former deputy PM and foreign secretary said he was told to stand in for then-PM Boris Johnson when he was ill with Covid with “five minutes’ notice”
  • Raab rejected suggestions that ex-PM Boris Johnson was a “puppet” for his then chief aide Dominic Cummings (1)
  • Raab defended Johnson’s decision making during the first lockdown, saying it was a crisis and therefore not a “manicured operation” - he insists the first lockdown was the result of an “incremental series of steps” rather than a “cliff-edge decision” and insists Johnson was not wavering or vacillating (2)
  • 'Raab on devolved nations - he praised Westminster’s work with the devolved administrations on test and trace, PPE procurement and the vaccine rollout (3)

(1) Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he 
 :roll_eyes:

(2) Was he wobbling 
 :017:

(3) The vaccine rollout may have been a success but test and trace and PPE procurement were monumentally expensive and corruption-riddled exercises in being profligate with the public purse 
 :angry:

Another Tory slimeball, peddling fantasy rather than fact 
 :lying_face:

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Today - former health secretary Matt “The Liar” Hancock 
 :grimacing:

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Hi

The real damage was done much earlier, Cameron and Osbourne, compounded by May.

They were the ones who dismantled the preventative side of Public Health, closed the labs and got rid of the staff.

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Matt Hancock is lying giving evidence before the UK Covid inquiry

He is defending his department against criticism from previous witnesses, saying that the Department for Health “rose to the challenge” and did things that other parts of government should have done and blaming “toxic culture” in the government at the time for seeing “anything that went wrong as an intentional failure”.

Most recently, Hancock is claiming that he first told the PM that lockdown would be needed on Friday 13 March but other witnesses have said that Hancock was excluded from No 10 meetings around that time and there is no reference to that warning in Hancock’s own book, Pandemic Diaries, published in December last year - Hancock said that information only “came to light” later when he was preparing to give evidence for this inquiry 
 :roll_eyes:

Hopefully, there will be a summary of Hancock’s extensive lies evidence later.

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Exactly - it started with the 2012 Health & Social Care Act. This obliged all the health trusts to maximise the privatized sourcing of supplies and it led to the outsourcing of emergency PPE stock. And that outsourced contract has been switched to new suppliers more than once over the years and the stock moved to different warehouses. Which led to the outsourced supplier not knowing what stock they had, what was out of date, what should be stored in controlled environment. In short a mess that made PPE shortages during the pandemic worse.

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12:54

Inquiry breaks for lunch