Chapter 10: Vulnerabilities and inequalities

Introduction

¶10.1. The Covid-19 pandemic touched the lives of everyone in the UK, regardless of their background. However, the impact was not shared equally. Certain groups in society were at greater risk of acquiring Covid-19, of suffering severe illness, of dying from Covid-19 or of suffering long-term symptoms. Very considerable numbers of people suffered from the social, economic and cultural consequences of the steps taken to combat the pandemic – but the people who suffered the most were those who were socially and economically disadvantaged.

¶10.2. Professor Sir Christopher Whitty (Chief Medical Officer for England from October 2019) told the Inquiry that the disproportionate impact of the pandemic upon the most disadvantaged in society "has been true for almost all infections through history".¹¹ INQ000251645_0201 para 11.1 A 2022 report by the Chief Medical Officers and Chief Scientific Advisers for the four nations of the UK, the Technical Report on the Covid-19 Pandemic in the UK, further noted:

" Infectious disease epidemics and pandemics usually expose and exacerbate existing disparities in society, such as those associated with deprivation, ethnicity, sex, age and sexuality."²² Technical Report on the Covid-19 Pandemic in the UK, Department of Health and Social Care, 1 December 2022 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technical-report-on-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk; INQ000101642_0087)

¶10.3. As the virus spread across the UK, it was well understood in government that a significant part of the population was known to be at a greater risk of becoming infected by and/or dying from Covid-19. The protection of these people lay in the swift identification of steps to reduce their risk of becoming infected. The need to take steps to protect people clinically – for example, by ensuring that hospital facilities could cope and that clinically extremely vulnerable people (see below) were shielded – was also plainly well understood. However, there were other people who were particularly vulnerable to the virus, such as disabled people and members of certain ethnic minorities, whose position was not considered adequately and speedily enough.

¶10.4. This chapter considers those who were at the greatest risk clinically from Covid-19 and who obviously required direct and immediate attention. It examines the broad nature of what was done to protect vulnerable people and assesses whether there were systemic failings in the general approach taken by the UK government and devolved administrations. It then inquires into the indirect harms that were caused by the government responses and whether the risks of these harms occurring were anticipated and addressed. It also proposes practical tools by which those risks could be better mitigated in the future.