Lessons need to be learned from the pandemic to avoid mistakes being repeated

It’s easy to look back with the benefit of hindsight but the circumstances that political leaders found themselves in were compounded by a lack of preparation.

The Covid-19 Inquiry condemned the UK Government and the civil service, saying they had “failed” the public due to “significant flaws” in preparing for the pandemic.

There are those who seek to underplay the importance of intervention during the pandemic. A lot of this discourse has been fed by the initial reaction of figures at the heart of the then British government.

The reality is that the consequences of delaying measures caused thousands of avoidable deaths and had the government not acted at all, or waited longer, the virus would have caused even more devastation.

Trust needs to be rebuilt by government and institutions because should another global pandemic strike, then it will need people’s collective cooperation.

A formal code of conduct during an emergency such as a global health crisis should also be drafted and, if ever needed, applied to all officials.

The most important voice in this is that of the victims and their families. Their pain should be at the forefront of policymakers' minds.

Their fight for justice is not just finding closure but about ensuring that the same mistakes are never made again.

The anguish of these families should be motivation enough for political leaders to prepare Britain to a point where it is the best in class when it comes to dealing with a pandemic.