Module 2 comes to a close: What we have learnt, and what needs to change
Module 2 of the UK Covid 19 Inquiry, which was looking into political governance and decision making during the pandemic, closed this week following appearances from Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. If it wasn't for bereaved families campaigning for an Inquiry, none of this would be happening.
While the last weeks will have been really challenging for bereaved families, whether they attended the Inquiry in person or watched from home, the findings from the Inquiry are worthwhile. The recommendations that will emerge from our questioning will save lives in future pandemics, and your presence in the media will serve as a life saving reminder of the tragic impact of the government's mismanagement of the pandemic.
Here is our statement following the closing of the module yesterday:
'Module 2 has been bruising for bereaved families. Politicians have attempted to use the hearings to settle political scores and shrug off blame, which in turn has been used to discredit the Inquiry. However, what matters is the evidence. As hard as it has been to hear some of the lies told by the likes of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, we have been listening, so that we can identify lessons that will save lives in the future.
Politicians have made hurtful and misleading claims again and again in the Inquiry, and again and again their statements have been proved to be baseless lies. Johnson claimed that the UK didn’t do a bad job. The UK’s monstrous death toll, surpassed in Western Europe only by Italy, and the catalogue of ways in which bereaved families were let down by those elected to keep them safe irrefutably disproves this. The former PM claimed that the government would have ramped up its response in the earliest days of the pandemic if they had known how easily and quickly the virus was spreading throughout the UK. The evidence shows that they did know, and that those in charge dragged their feet, considered themselves more informed than scientific experts and lied to one another about the UK’s ability to respond.
Politicians also claimed to have ‘followed the science’ throughout the pandemic. In fact, they habitually ignored scientific advice when implementing disastrous, life destroying policies like Eat Out to Help Out, or downgrading PPE requirements in care homes and hospitals because they hadn’t provided workers with the right PPE, regardless of what was clinically necessary to keep people safe.
The Inquiry must now reflect on how crisis decision making and response systems are improved at the heart of government. This is the most important purpose of the Inquiry, but the past module has also pulled back the curtain on how decisions were made during the biggest crisis this country has faced since World War Two. The public has a right to know that our politicians thought they knew better than scientists, and thought that the pandemic was “nature’s way of dealing with the old”. We deserve to know that they put politics above public health, that they sacrificed our loved ones and to this day maintain it would have been wrong to focus support on the most vulnerable. Not least as many of these politicians are still in power.
Bereaved families have paid the ultimate cost of the arrogance and incompetence at the heart of government, which Module 2 of the Covid Inquiry has robustly exposed. We will campaign to make sure these failures are recognised and learned from in the future.' - Jean Adamson
As you may have seen, we have had hundreds of pieces of press coverage, including on BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, BBC News, ITV News, C4 News, C5 News, Sky News, The Times, LBC and much, much more, in the past two weeks.
Here are some key moments from the hearings:
Brenda Campbell KC, questioning Boris Johnson on behalf of Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice NI (from start to 20 mins in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-R6Xx_Oemk
Pete Weatherby KC, questioning Boris Johnson on behalf of Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (from 2hours 3 mins in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT_2pGmPm7Q
Anna Morris KC, questioning Rishi Sunak on behalf of Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (from 1hour 13 mins in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_08pco9j-8
Closing statements on behalf of Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK and NI (3mins in until 54 mins in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUsYyDNKU7Y
Here is a statement made by Lobby Akinnola following Johnson's appearance: https://twitter.com/RubyJLL/status/1732387544094912541
And finally, here is a video put together by some of our members in collaboration with 38Degrees: https://twitter.com/CovidJusticeUK/status/1732370776991387656
