The Covid<\/a> Inquiry has just released its second official report into the UK\u2019s management of the pandemic<\/a> \u2013 and it has torn into Boris Johnson\u2019s<\/a> government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Its first report, released in July 2024<\/a>, critiqued the planning system and the \u201cdangerously mistaken belief\u201d the UK was better prepared for a pandemic than other countries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This second report is 800 pages long, and examined how the government responded once Covid cases started to hit the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s a look at some of its most revealing findings<\/a> which the inquiry chair, former Court of Appeal judge, Baroness Hallett, revealed today…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe inquiry finds that the response of the four governments repeatedly amounted to a case of \u2018too little, too late\u2019,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe failure to appreciate the scale of the threat, or the urgency of response it demanded, meant that by the time the possibility of a mandatory lockdown was first considered it was already too late and a lockdown had become unavoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It notes<\/a> that the early Covid crisis in Italy \u201cshould have prompted urgent planning across the four nations\u201d, adding: \u201cInstead, the government did not take the pandemic seriously enough until it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report<\/a> suggests that government scientists underestimated how quickly the virus could be spreading in the early days, too, and that there was also a lack of trust between devolved governments and Westminster. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report<\/a> suggested if the government had introduced voluntary measures earlier, a mandatory lockdown could have been avoided altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even if lockdown had been imposed just one week earlier \u2013 such as on March 16 \u2013 the number of deaths in England caused by the first wave of the virus could have halved, and 23,000 lives may have been saved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But by the second week of March, the situation was \u201clittle short of calamitous\u201d with no proper plan and no testing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To make matters worse, lockdown was not announced until March 23, 2020 \u2013 18 days after the first person in the UK had died after testing positive for the virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Johnson\u2019s adviser Dominic Cummings<\/a> was blamed for cultivating a \u201cculture of fear, mutual suspicion and distrust that poisoned the atmosphere\u201d in No.10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report says this then affected the quality of advice and decision-making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cummings\u2019 infamous trip to Durham and Barnham Castle<\/a> also \u201cundermined public confidence in decision making\u201d and increased the risk of people choosing not to follow the rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Johnson, meanwhile, did not show the \u201cprime ministerial leadership\u201d needed to \u201cinject urgency into the response\u201d, according to the report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report asks why then prime minister Johnson did not chair a single Cobra emergency committee meeting that month, at a time when Covid cases across Europe were soaring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMr Johnson should have appreciated sooner that this was an emergency that required prime ministerial leadership to inject urgency into the response,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It also notes that responding to Covid essentially paused during half-term \u2013 and that time could have enabled Britain to act sooner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Johnson spent the whole week holed up in one of the government\u2019s grace-and-favour residences, Chevening, where he was not kept up-to-date on the virus at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report says: \u201cIt does not appear that he was briefed, at all or to any significant extent, on Covid-19 and he received no daily updates.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first lockdown was implemented in the \u201cgenuine and reasonable belief it was required,\u201d according to Baroness Hallett.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She said: \u201cThey had no choice by then. But it was through their own acts and omissions that they had no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report then claims these same errors were repeated when it comes to the subsequent lockdowns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It claims that not only did none of the UK\u2019s four governments had a strategy for when or how they would exit the first lockdown, but they also did not \u201cgive enough attention to the possibility of a second wave\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The inquiry concluded the UK went on to make the same errors even as subsequent waves of Covid hit the country. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hallett did later praise the UK\u2019s vaccine programme, calling it a \u201cremarkable achievement\u201d \u2013 but noted that the failure to take \u201cswift and decisive action, yet again\u201d led to another lockdown in early 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the start of 2020, Johnson was too optimistic that Covid would amount to nothing \u2013 and so he chose to prioritise other governmental issues, according to report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hallett also pointed to partygate \u2013 when officials and politicians broke social distancing rules in Downing Street \u2013 for causing \u201chuge distress\u201d to the public and increasing the number of people who would not follow the rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Matt Hancock<\/a>, then the health secretary, developed a reputation for \u201coverpromising and under-delivering\u201d when he was in government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He had allegedly told the cabinet \u201ctime and time again\u201d that the UK could cope with Covid, but \u201cany confidence that there were detailed and carefully considered procedures in place was misplaced\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Baroness Hallett said: \u201cThere were also concerns about Mr Hancock\u2019s truthfulness and reliability in UK government meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Department of Health also offered \u201cmisleading assurances\u201d that the country was well-prepared for such an emergency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hancock\u2019s behaviour also compounded Johnson\u2019s \u201coptimism\u201d that the virus would amount to nothing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report suggested government advisers and scientists held off on imposing lockdown measures out of fear the public would stop following the rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, the report said such a concern \u201chad no grounding in behavioural science and proved damaging, given the imperative to act more decisively and sooner\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Medical adviser for England, professor Chris Whitty, was also criticised in the report because he \u201cdid not wish the UK to be the first country to abandon containment\u201d and felt it was best to wait for the World Health Orgianisation to accept there was a pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the report claims this was the \u201cwrong approach, given the extent of the spread of the virus within the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Rishi Sunak\u2019s \u201cEat Out to Help Out\u201d scheme from August 2020 \u2013 where the government subsidised food and drinks to boost the hospitality sector \u2013 was torn apart, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report warns it was \u201cdevised in the absence of any scientific advice\u201d and \u201cundermined public health messaging\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The second national lockdown was introduced in England on November 5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the government then suggested restrictions could ease over Christmas, giving the public \u201cfalse hope\u201d \u2013 considering a new lockdown was implemented at the start of January.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The political fallout will likely continue in the coming days, although it\u2019s hard to gauge the impact considering most of the primary figures involved in the decision-making at the height of the pandemic have since quit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group said while its findings were \u201cvindicating\u201d, it is \u201cdevastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different prime minister\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Just under 227,000 people in the UK with Covid listed as one of the causes on their death certificate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Covid Inquiry has urged all four UK governments to \u201clearn the lessons\u201d in order to avoid lockdowns in future pandemics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a written parliamentary statement, prime minister Keir Starmer <\/a>acknowledged the failings and insisted that \u201cimprovements have been made to the way the government would respond to a major crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He noted: \u201cThat said, it is clear that local government and our public services, including the NHS, are under immense pressure and in many cases have not fully recovered from the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office promised at the start of this year that it was in the middle of the \u201clargest ever simulation of a pandemic in UK history\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Liberal Democrats have called on Kemi Badenoch<\/a> to apologise on behalf of the Tories over their \u201cabject failure\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n1. UK\u2019s response was \u2018too little, too late\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
2. Lockdown could have been avoided<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
3. There was a \u2018toxic and chaotic culture inside No.10\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
4. February 2020 was a \u2018lost month\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/691f6751170000727d9c6501.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp)
<\/picture><\/div>\n5. The same \u2018inexcusable\u2019 mistakes were repeated<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
6. Johnson acted with his own \u2018optimistic disposition\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
7. Matt Hancock \u2018overpromised and underdelivered\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
8. Advisers\u2019 fear over \u2018behavioural fatigue\u2019 were unfounded<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
9. Government gave the public \u2018false hope\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
What happens next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n