Module 1 Report – Easy Read


UK Covid-19 Inquiry

UK virus

Report and Recommendations July 2024

About Covid-19

Virus increasing

Covid-19 is a virus. It suddenly appeared in the UK in 2020. It spread very quickly.

Sick person in bed

People across the world became ill. Many people died. This meant it was called a pandemic.

Person at home

There were lockdowns, where people had to stay at home. Hospitals and care homes struggled to cope.

Inquiry panel

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is looking at what happened before and during the pandemic. The results will help us prepare for next time.

About this report

UK Covid-19 Inquiry logo

This is the Inquiry’s first report. It is about resilience and preparedness.

A patient receiving a vaccination

Resilience means the UK’s strength and ability to cope with a pandemic.

Preparedness – did we prepare well enough, before it happened?

People in a magnifying glass

People from all over the UK told us about their experiences.

Baroness Hallett - the Chair of the Inquiry

Baroness Hallett is the Chair of the Inquiry. She is gathering the information and writing reports.

What we found out

UK virus

The Inquiry found out that the UK was not properly prepared for Covid-19. Reasons include

Interconnected organisations
  • Lots of organisations were involved in making plans. This made things too complicated.
Plans
  • We did not find out enough about the risk of a pandemic like Covid-19 happening, and what the effects might be. This meant we couldn’t plan properly.
Person holding a plan
  • The government’s pandemic plan was out of date and not flexible enough.
People
  • Before the pandemic, some groups of people were already not getting good enough healthcare. This is called health inequality.
Plans

Thinking about this should have been part of the planning for a pandemic.

Exasperated people
  • We did not learn enough from other pandemics that have happened.
Test and isolate
  • We were not ready to test and isolate so many people.
Policy
  • Policies were out of date, too complicated and used language that people did not understand.
Scratching head

This can make it take longer to make decisions and organise things, when a pandemic happens.

Person with clip board
  • Government ministers got advice from a small group of experts. They needed to hear more opinions, from more people. Ministers did not ask enough questions about the advice.
Speech bubble
  • Experts who gave advice to the government did not feel free to give a wide range of opinions.
People around a table

Everyone agreed with each other too often, because they did not hear enough different views.

UK virus

We could have saved lives and money, if we had been better prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic

What should happen next

People sharing documents
  • Make everything simpler: plans, policies, and the ways people work together.
Learning
  • Learn more about the risks in a pandemic.
Planning

This means finding out about harmful things that might happen, then making plans to make them less likely to happen.

People around the UK
  • Involve all of the UK in making plans. Use our experience of pandemics to make better plans
People in a magnifying glass
  • Build better systems to collect and share information. Do more research about pandemics.
Report
  • Every 3 years, practice the pandemic plans. Publish the results, so everyone can read about it.
Opinions
  • Ask a wide range of experts what they think about the plans for coping with a pandemic. Let them ask difficult questions.
Reports
  • Write regular reports about how prepared we are for a pandemic.
Organisation
  • Create a new organisation to
    • Plan for pandemics
    • Respond to pandemics
    • Give advice to the government
People outside a house

It must work closely with experts and communities.

Network

All these recommendations are designed to work well together.

Baroness Hallett - the Chair of the Inquiry

Baroness Hallett expects that all of the recommendations will happen.

UK Covid-19 Inquiry logo

The Inquiry will be finding out whether things change or not.

Future reports

UK Parliament

There will be more reports about:

  • Decisions the government made
  • Healthcare
Medical staff with vaccination
  • Vaccines and treatments
  • Things that were bought – like medical equipment and software
Person at home
  • Test, trace and isolate
  • Social care
Money
  • Children and young people
  • How the UK’s money was spent

Find out more

Clicking on a computer

If you want to find out more, please go to this website

Thank you

https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/

Thank you for reading our report.