Holiday Bonus: Everything you ever wanted to know about the UK Covid-19 Inquiry but were afraid to ask

Oh my god, what a shibshow!

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a Covid-19 Vaccine Visit" by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Time for some fun holiday reading! Ok, maybe not so fun. More enraging than fun, with maybe a side of soul-crushing.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry started in June 2023 and has continued since then. It’s taking a break for the holidays and will continue in 2024.

I grew increasingly fascinated as it progressed and almost obsessed by the end of November. I thought I’d share some readings. Mostly retrospectively assembled pre-end of November, so a little sparser and sketchier for those earlier months as I tried to reassemble some readings and broaden my own understanding. I’ve listed the readings by month, not particularly chronologically ordered within each month. 

I’ll be taking next week off, and returning with another easy-to-prepare Holiday Bonus in the first week of January. Regularly scheduled service will resume probably in the second week of January.

Enjoy the chaos and dysfunction. 

June 2023

• openDemocracy hires Covid inquiry reporters after crowdfunder success

• Britain's COVID inquiry into the handling of the pandemic | Reuters

• UK COVID inquiry in crisis as Conservative government tries to conceal pandemic crimes - World Socialist Web Site

• Covid inquiry: Bereaved families’ hardship will be recognised, vows Hallett | openDemocracy

• Covid Inquiry: Former chief medical officer close to tears over pandemic deaths

• Rishi Sunak must stop trying to hide evidence from the Covid inquiry | Andrew Rawnsley | The Guardian

• Covid inquiry: 2019 pandemic plan shows care homes not prioritised | openDemocracy

• Covid-19 inquiry: Experts clash with political leaders over effects of austerity | The BMJ

• Covid inquiry hears DHSC bought PPE for Black staff in ‘much smaller’ amounts | openDemocracy

• Covid inquiry lawyer criticises government over evidence

• The impotence of the Covid Inquiry - UnHerd

• Sunak under fire as ‘stupid’ Eat Out to Help Out scheme to be focus of Covid inquiry

• Covid-19 inquiry: UK ‘didn’t consider structural racism in pandemic planning’ | openDemocracy

July 2023

• Covid inquiry: BMA lawyer closes hearings with shot at ‘critically under-resourced’ NHS | openDemocracy

• Covid Inquiry: Bereaved families received targeted abuse

• A nation off-guard: what the UK Covid inquiry has revealed

• Boris Johnson's old phone could soon be accessed by Covid inquiry

• Covid Inquiry: Bereaved families received targeted abuse

• Covid-19 inquiry: Brexit blamed for diverting focus away from pandemic planning | The BMJ

• Court orders ministers to hand Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps to Covid inquiry

• Covid inquiry: Former first minister says UK should have made NI decisions

• Covid inquiry: Results of pandemic planning were kept secret from local councils | openDemocracy

• Covid, the Cabinet and a tussle over disclosure: R (Cabinet Office) v The Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry - UK Human Rights Blog

• How austerity made the UK more vulnerable to COVID 

August 2023

• What has the Covid inquiry found so far? | openDemocracy

• Covid-19: A year is too long to wait for UK inquiry’s recommendations, say bereaved families | The BMJ

• Lockdowns cut infections during pandemic, UK Covid inquiry told

• Children Excluded From Official UK COVID Inquiry ━ The European Conservative

• Covid inquiry: Emails of former Welsh NHS staff deleted

• Boris Johnson's WhatsApps: Government asks Covid inquiry to return evidence | openDemocracy

• Full details of UK Covid contracts worth £8bn still to be published

• Chris Whitty’s Covid emails reveal response to Boris Johnson critics | openDemocracy

• M&C Saatchi ‘shouldn’t be anywhere near Covid-19 inquiry’, campaigners claim

• 'The Press Equivalent of the PPE "VIP" Channel': Submission to COVID Inquiry On Newspaper 'Bungs' Calls for Answers on Use of Taxpayer Money – Byline Times

• Hope is not a strategy in times of crisis - The Lancet 

• Tory Peer Says UK Has “Failed" To Learn Infectious Disease Lessons From Covid

September 2023

• Covid inquiry: Boris Johnson evidence not ‘irrelevant’ after all | openDemocracy

• Health department slammed for delaying key evidence to Covid inquiry

• Covid Inquiry: Families criticise 'disrespect' by Department of Health

• Sunak and Johnson Covid-19 inquiry appearances delayed ‘to avoid party conference season’

• COVID INQUIRY: Care home restrictions were ‘too severe’ on relatives – West Highland Free Press

• The forgotten victims of the pandemic

• BMA calls for investigation into debacle over covid and flu vaccinations | The BMJ

• Covid Inquiry will talk to children after fears their voice had fallen silent

• Jenny Harries interview: We’ll behave more like Sweden when the next pandemic hits

October 2023

• Boris Johnson thought old people should accept Covid fate, inquiry told 

• Boris Johnson 'was obsessed with older people accepting their fate', Covid inquiry hears – video | UK news | The Guardian 

• UK Covid inquiry turns its focus to Great Barrington Declaration - The Post 

• UK Covid Inquiry Drags Sunak Back Into Boris Johnson’s Mess - Bloomberg

• UK Covid inquiry reaches week of potentially damning testimony 

• Covid inquiry: UK’s pandemic modellers ‘weren’t given key policy information’ | openDemocracy

• Covid-19 inquiry: ‘Institutional racism’ blamed for lack of data on health inequalities | openDemocracy

• Doctors started writing their wills in 2020, UK Covid inquiry told

• UK hit by ‘widespread failure’ in Covid-19 response, inquiry hears

• Covid inquiry: Government response must be judged on how many died | openDemocracy

• Sunak fails to hand WhatsApp messages from time as chancellor to Covid inquiry

• Lack of ethnic diversity on SAGE 'impacted' advice given to ministers on Covid

• Covid inquiry: Scientists proposed ‘cocooning’ carers to protect elderly | openDemocracy

• Covid inquiry: Daily Mail wanted people back at work to revive sales – Johnson aide 

• Rishi Sunak dubbed 'Dr Death' in COVID WhatsApp messages | Politics News 

November 2023

• UK PM Sunak reportedly said 'just let people die', COVID inquiry hears | Reuters

• Patrick Vallance contradicts Rishi Sunak’s evidence to Covid inquiry

• Covid inquiry: Johnson moaned UK was ‘too s**t to get our act together’, says Patrick Vallance | openDemocracy

• Boris Johnson was ‘bamboozled’ by scientific data, UK Covid inquiry told

• Matt Hancock Said Things That Were 'Not True' During Covid, Says Patrick Vallance 

• Johnson: Williamson's Covid plans for schools 'probably feeble'

• Covid Inquiry: Boris Johnson referred to Treasury as 'pro-death squad' 

• The Covid Inquiry gets worse by the day – can no one take responsibility for anything?

• Scientific adviser tells Covid inquiry she distrusted Treasury’s ability to handle data

• Amid the drama of the Covid inquiry, Chris Whitty quietly pointed to an important truth. Will anyone listen? | Stephen Reicher | The Guardian

• Eat Out to Help Out contributed to 'worst moment of pandemic', top scientist says - Mirror Online

• Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock’s early Covid warnings were ignored by No 10, say allies 

• Covid inquiry: Sadiq Khan’s warnings about disproportionate impact fell on deaf ears | openDemocracy

• Covid inquiry: The week that science became both bamboozling and a millstone | The BMJ 

• Dominic Cummings said UK officials ‘should be shot’ over bungled COVID response – POLITICO 

• Covid inquiry: Lockdown should have been three weeks earlier - Hancock

• Boris Johnson faces COVID inquiry grilling next week 

December 2023

• ‘She sacrificed care home residents’: health chief Jenny Harries under fire after UK Covid inquiry revelations

• Boris Johnson Set to Apologize for Covid Mistakes

• Boris Johnson to tell Covid Inquiry he didn't lockdown sooner on advice of scientists

• Covid inquiry: The bereaved families attending every single day | openDemocracy 

• Covid inquiry: Hancock is grilled on care homes, lockdowns, and testing | The BMJ

• COVID inquiry: how it works, and when we will know if it is successful 

• Boris Johnson: I wasn’t properly warned about seriousness of Covid

• Lazy and fraudulent: we saw the true Johnson at the Covid inquiry – and why his like must never have power again | Martin Kettle | The Guardian

• Boris Johnson: I should have had more women in top team during Covid 

• Hancock’s covid inquiry evidence offers few clues as to why long covid was sidelined | The BMJ

• Communicating scientific advice: lessons from the UK covid-19 inquiry | The BMJ

• Sunak faces new questions at Covid inquiry after pranksters claim they reached his old phone number

• Boris Johnson is gone for good, but his brand of empty populism is still very much alive | Peter Oborne | The Guardian

• Covid inquiry: What did Johnson say about underestimated risks, excess deaths, and his missing WhatsApps? | The BMJ 

• Ignore the Johnson and Sunak circus: these are the real lessons from the Covid inquiry | Devi Sridhar | The Guardian 

• Covid inquiry: Boris Johnson’s pandemic claims dismantled ahead of Christmas break | openDemocracy

• Covid inquiry: Sunak defends his pandemic policies made as chancellor | The BMJ 

• Hugo Keith KC: dogged fact-finder at heart of Covid inquiry 

• Legal threat to Covid Inquiry from children’s rights group over failure to address harms of lockdown

• Covid inquiry: Government maintains it ‘got big decisions right’ | openDemocracy