Government failed its citizens on Covid due to flawed pandemic planning, damning report finds – BBC.com

Told we had one of the best plans... but for the wrong pandemicpublished at 14:38 18 July 14:38 18 July

Nick Triggle Health correspondent

The report is careful not to point the finger of blame at any particular individuals.

That will disappoint some, but its because what Covid Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett sets out is a detailed and damning account of systematic failure.

A complex, labyrinthine structure of committees and advisory groups had developed over the years.

Devolution, which led to health being devolved, was a factor in this.

The scientists often so lauded during the pandemic were guilty of groupthink.

And ministers didnt do enough to challenge that.

But some of the problems were political too. Politicians may not be experts, but they set priorities. The pandemic plan dated back to 2011 and opportunities to update particularly after a training exercise in 2016 were missed. Why? One factor was the amount of planning going into a no-deal Brexit.

Austerity had also left public services over-stretched and lacking resilience to cope with an emergency.

A sense of exceptionalism played a role too. Told we had one of the best plans, we believed it. Except we had planned for the wrong pandemic. Lulled into a false sense of security by Swine Flu in 2009, we assumed the next pandemic would be mild and we could let it spread.

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Government failed its citizens on Covid due to flawed pandemic planning, damning report finds - BBC.com