According to the Covid inquiry's lead attorney, the "potentially massive impact" of lockdowns was not taken into account.
Hugo Keith KC said the UK may not have been "at all" prepared as the investigation into the government's handling of the pandemic began hearing testimony.
The bereaved families have a right to know if better planning could have prevented deaths, he continued.
According to official statistics, Covid was listed on 227,321 death certificates for individuals who passed away in the UK.
The virus had caused "death, misery, and incalculable loss," according to Mr. Keith's testimony at the first public hearing.
He claimed that although Covid could not have been avoided, the main question was whether it would have an unavoidable effect on the UK.
Mr. Keith testified before the inquiry that "very little thought" had been given to the potential effects of a national lockdown before the pandemic, and that the effects on the economy and of education had also not been considered.
As the inquiry gets ready to hear oral testimony from its first witnesses later this week, Mr. Keith gave a statement to the panel on Tuesday.
The UK's level of readiness for Covid up until January 2020 will be the first topic, or module, of the report.
Even at this point, before hearing the testimony, Mr. Keith said, "It is obvious that we may not have been at all well prepared. ".
- Going through what occurred and drawing lessons from it are the goals.
- There won't be any convictions or exonerations.
- Governments are not obligated to follow any recommendations made.
- The investigation has no set end date but is scheduled to hold public hearings until 2026.
- In addition to the UK-wide investigation, a separate one is being conducted in Scotland.
The investigation into how the coronavirus pandemic was handled would be the "thorough investigation," as promised by Chair Baroness Hallett.
The former High Court judge praised the "dignified vigil" of grieving family members outside the structure, who were protesting in silence.
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 equipped to deal with a pandemic?.
- Was the response that followed appropriate?
- Can we draw any lessons from this for the future?
The first phase of the investigation will feature testimony from prominent politicians, government employees, scientists, unions, health and care organizations, groups that represent victims and their families, and more.
People have allegedly been "excluded from sharing key evidence," according to the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which has criticized the inquiry's timeline.
They dubbed the investigation's Every Story Matters project, which allows members of the public to share their experiences with the inquiry through a website, as an "inadequate" process because stories will be anonymized, summarized, and possibly "open to bias and interpretation by third parties.".
Speaking to the inquiry's detractors, Lady Hallett said she hoped they would appreciate the difficult balance she had to strike.
"I'm listening to them, their loss will be acknowledged, and they can offer input to the inquiry," said the speaker. ".
Mr. Keith, the inquiry's attorney, claimed that "significant aspects" of the pandemic, such as lockdowns, caught the UK by surprise.
Even though the phrase "lockdown" is now permanently ingrained in the collective consciousness of the country, there was surprisingly little discussion prior to the pandemic about whether or not a lockdown might 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 became necessary, something as complicated, challenging, and destructive as a national lockdown could even be implemented.
"Equally, it appears that there was a failure to consider the potentially significant impact on the economy and on education. ".
He claimed that the UK had been preparing for an outbreak that would be more like the flu and questioned how well-equipped and resourced the NHS was to handle it.
No amount of planning or foresight can ensure that a nation won't make mistakes when a disease strikes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be as prepared as we rationally can be, Mr. Keith said.
No nation can be completely prepared, but it can undoubtedly be underprepared. ".
Mr. Keith emphasized "shocking" statistics that showed Covid mortality was 2.5 times higher in some of the poorest areas of the UK than in the richest areas, and that people from certain racial or ethnic minorities or those with disabilities were much more likely to contract the illness or pass away from it.
A "big question" in module one would be how much those outcomes could and should have been anticipated and prevented, he said.
The larger political context will also be taken into account, including any potential effects of Brexit on emergency planning.
Mr. Keith questioned whether the focus on the dangers of a no-deal Brexit—known as Operation Yellowhammer—drained resources and capacity that should have been used to continue the fight against the next pandemic.
Or did that general and operational planning really result in people being better trained, well-marshalled, and more capable of handling Covid?
based on the current evidence. We are extremely concerned that it was the first. ".
The investigation will also look into whether the failure of the power-sharing arrangement in Northern Ireland hindered the capacity of the government to prepare for and respond to the pandemic.
Whether Covid originated from a lab leak or from wild animals that were raised and sold in Wuhan, according to Mr. Keith, is unlikely to be known. Neither when the initial human infection occurred, he claimed.
"This knowledge is irrelevant for the purposes of this inquiry. " .
The "closest to an overall plan" to deal with Covid in 2020, according to Pete Weatherby KC, counsel for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, was a 2011 plan created to safeguard the UK against an influenza outbreak.
Time is of the essence in a pandemic, he said, and lost time is measured in lives.
The evidence is expected to demonstrate that there was little to no ministerial leadership and that committees were chaotic, which resulted in bad planning and, ultimately, a reactive rather than a proactive response to the virus. " .
The government would not address every point brought up in the inquiry, a prime ministerial spokesperson said in response to the Brexit allegations.
The government would be in charge of responding at the appropriate time, he added. .
Former prime minister Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages with about 40 other politicians and officials have been requested by Lady Hallett, but his successor Rishi Sunak is contesting this.
The Cabinet Office sued to stop the request, claiming some of the messages were irrelevant. This is reportedly the first time a government has brought a lawsuit against a self-initiated public inquiry.
Having WhatsApp messages sent after May 2021, according to Mr. Johnson, would make him "perfectly content.". As a result of his mobile phone being involved in a security breach and not being used since, earlier messages are not accessible.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock also stated that he was happy to share his messages, despite the fact that the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who assisted Mr. Hancock in writing his book, Pandemic Diaries, has already revealed many of them.
The spokesperson for Rishi Sunak said in a statement regarding the back and forth regarding the messages that it "is still ongoing" and will "obviously. be resolved using the regular channels.".
"Overall, we have continued to provide the inquiry with tens of thousands of pieces of information, 55,000 documents over the past 11 months, and we will continue to do so in the spirit of openness and honesty. ".
In spring 2020, the UK experienced one of the worst initial Covid waves in Europe.
Aproximately 160,000 deaths were reported in April and May of that year, which is 60,000 more than one might anticipate given the years leading up to the pandemic.
However, many eastern European nations that appeared to have escaped the initial wave by the following winter had surpassed the UK.
As of July of last year, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics' analysis of these data for Europe, the UK was ranked in the middle of the pack.
Statistics from the Department of Health show that 227,321 deaths in the UK were attributed to Covid.
More than 151m doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered in the UK, stopping numerous viral deaths and serious illnesses.
