The sprawling Covid Inquiry will be of little use come the next pandemic
Sir – There is something deeply dispiriting about the drawn-out way in which the Covid Inquiry is being conducted, and its terms of reference (“Covid Inquiry is fundamentally biased, scientists warn”, report, March 13). The only really useful thing would be to judge what basic actions were likely to have been beneficial in the short and long term, and those which were clearly harmful.
Next time a pandemic hits, it will certainly not be the same, and neither will the actors involved. Our vulnerabilities will be different, and the young may be much more at risk than they were with Covid.
The Government should have set a very tight budget and time limit, and forced the inquiry to work within those constraints, concentrating on the essentials. As it is, it can only yield broad guidance for the future, gleaned from past experience. Fighting the last war is always a mistake. Adrian Thornton
Shackleford, Surrey
Sir – Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, has admitted to the UK Covid Inquiry that local lockdowns were “a failed experiment”, and a senior Welsh adviser said that, in hindsight, “perhaps they weren’t the best idea”.
In May and June 2020, thousands of fixed-penalty notices were issued to people in Wales for failing to take part in what is now being deemed an experiment – one which none of them had consented to be involved in.
The hindsight argument is also fallacious, as numerous public-health specialists warned as early as April 2020 that lockdowns would have no effect whatsoever on the circulation of a respiratory virus, and would only serve to wreck the economy and society in general. Graham Low
Malpas, Cheshire
Sir – The Covid Inquiry is neglecting the topic of loneliness. This is now widely documented as a cause of mental illness, which increased during the pandemic.
The cure for loneliness includes friendship. If social distancing and masking are required ever again, they must not be in isolation. There is a 1,000-year study of this topic in the field of leprosy.
Being completely alone, whether in care or working at home, is bad for mental health. Emeritus Professor Terence J Ryan
Green Templeton College University of Oxford
Sir – In light of official Whatsapp messages being deleted, meaning they are unavailable to the Covid Inquiry, a simple solution would be to have a specifically designed mobile phone for senior politicians and officials, which does not allow messages to be deleted.
This would restore trust in inquiries, and help us learn from the past and prepare for the future. Rick Turner
Stone, Staffordshire