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The Covid Inquiry has released its findings on the second part of its hearings – and they are damning.

Coverage of the Inquiry’s report in the mass media has been widespread, and it is easy to be confused by it all (I think). Let’s try to break it down simply:

The picture the report draws of the United Kingdom’s pandemic response is almost unfathomably damning.

If there was one conclusion to take from the more than 750 pages published today, it is this:

The UK’s response to Covid-19 was a disaster – and this disaster was not an accident.

It was the result of delay, dysfunction, arrogance, chaos, ignorance and indifference that were baked into the heart of government at precisely the moment the country needed competence and leadership.

That blame runs far further than a single prime minister, a single adviser or a single scientific decision. The failure was systemic.

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“Too little, too late” — everywhere

Across all four countries of the UK – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – the Inquiry found the same fatal pattern:

• Threats underestimated.
• Warnings ignored.
• Internal chaos prioritised over public safety.
• Lives lost because government(s) waited, wavered… and simply hoped the problem would go away.

February 2020 – immediately preceding the first lockdown – was described as “a lost month” — it was a time when Covid was already wrecking Italy’s health system and racing across Europe, yet the United Kingdom’s leaders carried on as if nothing were happening.

By March 12, the situation was “little short of calamitous” – and still action was delayed.

The inquiry concluded that imposing lockdown just one week earlier would have saved around 23,000 lives in England in the first wave alone.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the fatal pattern of too late and too weak played out in different forms, but to the same tragic effect.

This was not one government’s failure; it was a failure across all four governments — united only in slowness and denial.

10 Downing Street: chaos as a governing philosophy

The epicentre of the chaos was Downing Street — and what the Inquiry describes there is not mere dysfunction but a deliberate culture of chaos.

The report makes crystal clear:

• Boris Johnson embraced disorder, believing that it somehow generated creativity and competition.
• Dominic Cummings made key decisions that were properly for the prime minister, and Johnson let him.
• Cummings fostered a “toxic”, “macho”, “sexist” environment in which the loudest, most aggressive voices drowned out others — especially women.
• Senior officials described people being “smashed to pieces” by the atmosphere.
• Advice suffered and decisions were slowed because of this internal warfare.

Johnson’s own conduct made everything worse.

His habit of lurching between positions — the “shopping trolley” effect — meant guidance changed, sometimes on an hourly basis.

The report says plainly: his oscillation cost lives.

Time after time in 2020, when earlier action would have saved thousands, Johnson stalled, hesitated, or second-guessed himself.

The “circuit-breaker” lockdown recommended in September 2020 was rejected until forced by events.

Easing of lockdown rules in Christmas 2020 was allowed even as officials warned it would fuel disaster. And so it did.

Scientific illiteracy and wilful misunderstanding

The inquiry also exposes a striking deficiency: senior ministers did not understand the science they claimed to be “following”.

Johnson struggled so badly with basic concepts that, according to Patrick Vallance’s contemporaneous notes, watching him try to grasp the data was “awful”.

Ministers mixed up scenario modelling with forecasts, treating warnings as exaggerations rather than as risk assessments.

The mantra “we are following the science” — repeated endlessly during the pandemic — is shown to have been cover for political indecision.

In other words, it was a lie. It was just a phrase that was deliberately used to mislead the public.

Meanwhile the scientists themselves were worked to exhaustion, often unpaid, often abused, even assaulted in public* — and left without adequate support.

Vulnerable people abandoned

Among the most damning sections:

• Disabled people were not protected.
• People with Down’s syndrome were added to the shielding list months too late.
• People from ethnic minorities, already at higher risk, were left exposed while equalities staff were redeployed elsewhere.

Once again: delay and indifference had fatal consequences.

The devolved governments: not innocent, merely separate

While Johnson’s No 10 is at the centre of the storm, the inquiry does not spare the other governments:

• Wales brought in its firebreak too late and lifted restrictions too early, contributing to high mortality.
• Scotland under Nicola Sturgeon ran “gold command” meetings so centralised and opaque that transparency suffered.
• Northern Ireland saw its response collapse into political factionalism, leaks, and incoherence.

There is no comfort zone anywhere. No nation got it right.

Rule-breaking: hypocrisy that corroded public trust

The inquiry does not retread every story from “Partygate” or Barnard Castle, but it is unequivocal:

When leaders break the rules, the public’s willingness to follow them collapses.

Cummings’ lockdown-breaking trip to Barnard Castle remains emblematic — not just of hypocrisy but of how the government shredded its own authority when it needed compliance most.

Where the blame lands

Taken together, the Inquiry’s story is clear:

• Boris Johnson was responsible for catastrophic indecision, over-optimism, absence of leadership, and tolerance for chaos.
• Dominic Cummings nurtured a poisonous culture, including sexist and abusive behaviour. He had a de-stabilising influence, and made decisions beyond his remit.
• Other ministers had a poor grasp of science, repeatedly failed to act promptly, and there was an over-reliance on flawed concepts such as “behavioural fatigue”.
• Scientific governance structures suffered from understaffing, lack of support, and the funnelling of pressure onto a small number of exhausted individuals.
• The devolved administrations’ responses were slower-than-needed, there was over-centralisation or political division.
• The system as a whole was a political culture that prioritised messaging, reputation, and internal political battles over saving lives.

The common thread is not that they made mistakes — everyone did, everywhere in the world — but that the United Kingdom’s leadership:

• ignored evidence,
• delayed action,
• created chaos,
• misunderstood science,
• miscommunicated to the public, and
• tolerated a culture where expertise was sidelined.

That is why tens of thousands died who might otherwise have lived.

*Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, was physically assaulted in a London park in June 2021; Jonathan Van-Tam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, reported that his family received threats, including people telling him and his family that their “throats would be cut.”

Many others were subjected to threatening emails, abusive calls, intimidation on social media, and attempts to track down home addresses.

The Inquiry warns that this level of hostility risks deterring scientists from ever serving in public roles again, which would be catastrophic in future emergencies.

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