LONDON
\nThe UK government\u2019s focus on Brexit seriously hampered pandemic planning, an inquiry examining the country\u2019s handling of the Covid-19 health emergency was told on Tuesday.
\nHugo Keith, lead lawyer to the Covid-19 inquiry which is holding its first public session, said the country\u2019s departure from the European Union had \u201crequired an enormous amount of planning and preparation.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is clear that such planning, from 2018 onwards, crowded out and prevented some or perhaps a majority of the improvements that central government itself understood were required to be made to resilience planning and preparedness.\u201d
\nThe UK suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe with more than 128,500 fatalities recorded by mid-July 2021.
\nThe current toll of deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate stands at just over 227,000, according to the latest government figures.
\nChaired by retired senior judge Heather Hallett, the first phase of the inquiry is focusing on the UK\u2019s resilience and preparedness.
\nBut relatives of people who died have already condemned the inquiry for failing to include them and say it will be a \u201cfarce\u201d if they are not able to testify.
\nMembers of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign lined up outside the inquiry in central London holding pictures of their loved ones.
\n\u201cWithout learning from the experiences of our members, how can the inquiry properly evaluate the decisions made by those in charge?\u201d group member Barbara Herbert, who lost her husband Paul to Covid, said earlier this week.
\n\u201cWe are people that will be able to put reality to the theory that Hallett is testing, that has got to happen, otherwise it\u2019s just a farce,\u201d added Saleyha Ahsan, a doctor whose father Ahsan-ul-Haq Chaudry also died.
\nLaunching proceedings, Hallett pledged that those who suffered during the pandemic would \u201calways be at the heart of the inquiry.\u201d
\nShe paid tribute to the relatives\u2019 \u201cdignified vigil,\u201d adding that she hoped they would \u201cunderstand when they see the results of the work we are doing that I am listening to them.\u201d
\n\u201cTheir loss will be recognized,\u201d added Hallett, who previously oversaw the coroner\u2019s inquests into the 52 people killed in the July 7, 2005 London bombings.
\nThe inquiry is also facing controversy over its request for the unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks of pandemic era prime minister Boris Johnson who established the probe in 2021.
\nThe request for the material has prompted a legal challenge from the government of his successor Rishi Sunak.
\nSunak, who was finance minister during the pandemic, has denied trying to block the material, while Johnson is said to be in favor of it being shared.
\nHallett, however, has refused to back down over her request for the unredacted communications, likely to include exchanges at the heart of government relating to the ordering of lockdowns in 2020, when Sunak was in charge of the country\u2019s purse strings.
\nA High Court judge is due to rule on the request at the end of June, with the material expected to be central to the inquiry\u2019s second phase later in 2023 on government decision-making.
\nThe first witnesses to give evidence in person to the inquiry will be leading epidemiologists Jimmy Whitworth and Charlotte Hammer on Wednesday.
\nPublic inquiries in the UK are government-funded but have an independent chair. They investigate matters of public concern, establishing facts about what happened, why and what lessons can be learned.
\nThey do not rule on civil or criminal liability, and any recommendations are not legally binding.
\nLater phases of the inquiry will focus on how the UK health service coped with the pandemic, vaccines and therapeutics, government procurement and the impact on the care sector.
\nInterim reports will be published before the scheduled end of the hearings by mid-2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The UK government\u2019s focus on Brexit seriously hampered pandemic planning, an inquiry examining the country\u2019s handling of the Covid-19 health emergency was told on Tuesday. Hugo Keith, lead lawyer to the Covid-19 inquiry which is holding its first public session, said the country\u2019s departure from the European Union had \u201crequired an enormous amount of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-337422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n