Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, has criticized the UK’s pandemic preparations prior to COVID, stating that, they were overly focused on treating fatalities, rather than preventing them.
Hancock testified to the Covid-19 Inquiry Commission that, preparing for disasters was the main goal, and asked questions like, “Can we buy enough body bags, where are we going to bury the dead?, that was entirely incorrect.”
He expressed his “profound sorry” for each loss, but also said, his apology might be “hard to take” for certain people. However, a widow presented pictures of her husband, who died from Covid-19, to Mr. Hancock when he arrived at the inquiry.
Lorelei King, 69, held two A4 posters and presented them to Mr. Hancock as he stepped out from his vehicle. One frame featured a picture of Mr. Hancock and Mrs. King’s late husband, Vincent Marzello, who passed away at a nursing facility in March 2020 at the age of 72. “You shook my husband’s hand for your photo op,” the caption said.
Mr Hancock did not answer as he entered the building. “Care homes became charnel houses because there was no testing, there was insufficient PPE, but, most disastrously, they discharged people from hospitals without testing them,” Mrs. King told journalists. She urged Mr Hancock to “tell the truth” to the investigation. She added that, “the bereaved families deserve that much.”
KC Hugo Keith, the Inquiry’s chair, questioned Mr. Hancock on why the UK’s strategy for pandemic planning didn’t evolved while he was the health secretary.
“The only answer I can give is because I was assured that we had the best system in place in the world. In hindsight, I wish I’d spent that short period of time changing the entire attitude to how we respond to a pandemic.”
Matt Hancock, Ex UK Health Secretary.
The Inquiry chairman, Hugo Keith, drew the comparison; “Lions led by structural donkeys, Mr. Hancock. He complimented personnel in the health and social care sectors during the pandemic. Everyone did their all, but the machinery wasn’t up to the task, was it?”
On the other hand, inquiries regarding Exercise Cygnus, a three-day test in October 2016 to assess the UK’s readiness for an influenza pandemic, were frequently directed at the former health secretary. It determined that the United Kingdom’s plan was insufficient to “cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic.”
Data presented to the Inquiry showed that, just 8 of the 22 suggestions made following the workshop, were fully implemented by the time Covid-19 began, with work on the other 14 proposals, notably the one relating to the social care sector, still ongoing.
Mr Hancock stated that, part of the work were halted, due to the necessity to prepare the nation for a no-deal Brexit.
Exercise Cygnus, he said, was “flawed in its central assumption” that, the pandemic was a disaster that needed to be “cleaned up,” rather than something that needed to be stopped or confined in the first place.
“The doctrinal floor was the biggest by a long way because if we’d had a flu pandemic, we’d still have had the problem of no lockdown plan, no preparation for how to do one, no work on what, how best to lock down with the least damage.”
Matt Hancock.
“I deeply understand the consequences of lockdown and the negative consequences for many, many people, many of which persist to this day.”
Matt Hancock disclosed that, he was forced to ignore initial recommendations not to isolate persons returning from Wuhan at the start of the pandemic, and that everyone in the Western world overlooked the need for lockdowns.
He called the situation “terrible” and claimed that, the administration had no knowledge if proper safeguards were in place at the care facilities.
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