SESSION 9 [final]
The pandemic continues - What must happen now?
Wednesday 16 June (watch again below)
SESSION 9 AUDIO HERE
Previous sessions have heard testimony on government policies before and during the pandemic that have had significant bearing on the impact of the pandemic on the population, the differential impacts on groups in the population, and on the success or failure to control the spread of coronavirus and the resulting high numbers of deaths and people suffering with long term effects of Covid-19. This concluding session takes an overview: as the Delta variant spreads in Britain, and the pandemic rages across the world, with billions unprotected by vaccine, there are important questions of national and international consequence: a people's vaccine with technology shared and free from patents, governance around the vaccination programme; why has Government policy been in conflict with national trade unions like the NEU and what is the role of a trade union in the pandemic; consistent with previous sessions, the importance of listening and responding to citizens such as Bereaved Families for Justice; Inquiry witnesses have been highly critical of the way national government by-passed Local Authorities and Public Health: what could local government do and, most important, what must happen now?; and questions from a legal standpoint on accountability facing the Government re: legal and statutory compliance.
[The economics of policies adopted to address pandemic and related governance issues were covered in Session 8 as a late change]
THE PANEL:
Michael Mansfield QC (chair), Professor Neena Modi, Dr. Tolullah Oni, Dr. Jacky Davis
Lorna Hackett Barrister (Counsel to the Inquiry)
WITNESSES:
Deepti Gurdasani | Clinical epidemiologist & statistical geneticist, Senior Lecturer in Machine Learning, Queen Mary Univ. of London
https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=586
Kevin Courtney | Joint General Secretary, National Education Union https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=2161
Stephen Cowan | Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=4560
Matt Western | MP for Warwick & Leamington - written statement read out https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=6324
Jean Adamson | Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=6665
Michael Bimmler | Public law barrister https://youtu.be/_MmH8ABPAIw?t=7995