Government Prepared for ‘The Wrong Pandemic,’ COVID Inquiry Finds

Chair of the UK Covid Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, published her first report into the government response to the outbreak in 2020, finding that ministers and civil servants “failed citizens” because they had anticipated a worldwide flu outbreak rather than a novel coronavirus. Baroness Hallett accompanied her damning 217-page report with a warning that: “There will be a next time. The expert evidence suggests it’s not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic happens, but when.” Having listened to thousands of hours of testimony from ministers and civil servants, the inquiry concluded that the government response resulted in “more grief, untold misery and economic turmoil than necessary,” naming former health secretaries Matt Hancock and Jeremy Hunt among those most responsible for failing to adequately prepare the nation....