An MPs’ inquiry has confirmed that the Tories sacrificed tens of thousands of lives with their fatal handling of Covid-19.
But it lets ministers off the hook. It says its purpose is “not to point fingers of blame but ensure an accurate understanding of both successes and failures”.
That’s a cop-out because there is plenty of blame to be handed out, and the culprits start in 10 Downing Street.
It says the government backed a strategy that amounted to âherd immunityâ in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, essentially abandoning people to the virus.
It was âone of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experiencedâ, the parliamentary inquiry has concluded.
The joint reportâagreed unanimously by 22 MPsâ is the first official investigation of the British response to the pandemic ahead of the full public inquiry promised by Boris Johnson. It should be enough for everyone involved to resign, although they wonât.
The MPs accused the government and its scientific advisers of âgroup thinkâ that failed to take account of effective action to tackle Covid-19 taken in other countries.
The report by the House of Commons science and technology and health and social care committees said Britain had âsome of the best expertise available anywhere in the worldâ.
Pandemic
But ministers decided to delay lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic. The country was slower to lock down in March 2020 than several other European nations and made an âinexcusable oversightâ by failing to launch a successful test and trace operation as many east Asian countries did.
Despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for Covid-19 in January 2020, Britain âsquanderedâ its lead and âconverted it into one of permanent crisisâ. The consequences were profound, the report says. âFor a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.â
When the test, trace and isolate system was rolled out it was âslow, uncertain and often chaoticâ.
Further criticism is levelled at poor protection in care homes, for black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and for people with learning disabilities.
But the report has massive failings. It fails to identify the root of the killer policies. It wasnât some technical or bureaucratic incapacity, it was a deliberate elevation of profits before people.
At every point protecting big business and keeping as many people as possible at work came first. Thatâs why schools were reopened too soon, and why restrictions were ripped away too early.
That was why Johnson said âLet the bodies pile high in their thousands.â on 30 October last year, in response to the idea that there could be further lockdowns.
And the Labour Party and the trade union leaders went along with almost everything the Tories did.
Hannah Brady, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the report found the deaths of 150,000 people were âredeemedâ by the success of the vaccine rollout.
âThe report is laughable and more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings than it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost parents, partners or children to Covid-19.
âThis is an attempt to ignore and gaslight bereaved families, who will see it as a slap in the face,â she said.
Covid-19 has far from gone away. The Tories must pay for their crimes.
Source: Socialistworker.co.uk