The Covid 19 Inquiry has published its first set of recommendations to make sure the UK is better prepared when the next crisis hits.
This is a step in the right direction, and a big part of what we have been fighting for since 2020, when over 7,000 bereaved families first came together to demand an Inquiry into the loss of their loved ones.
But the fight is far from over. Time after time, we have all seen Inquiry recommendations, arrived at through great emotional and financial expense, left to gather dust on government desks.
We can’t let this happen now. We know that there will be another pandemic, and that the UK will face crises arising from international conflict, emerging technologies and climate destruction at an ever-growing rate.
We need your support to help us make sure that the Inquiry’s recommendations turn into life saving action, and that bereaved families are at the heart of the Government's pandemic preparedness.
Nobody knows better than we do exactly how our loved ones were failed.
When it comes to what went wrong, we are the experts.
That is why the Inquiry’s recommendations are drawn from our legal submissions to the Inquiry. However, the Inquiry’s recommendations do not go far enough. We need your support to make sure that the government hears loud and clear the things the Inquiry recommendations have left out, like the need to reduce health inequalities, racial and other social inequalities, and address the chronic underfunding of our public services, who lacked the capacity to respond to a crisis like a pandemic.
Preparing for the next pandemic isn’t just about planning - it's about building resilience into our services and into the health of our communities.
Justice, for us, won’t be achieved until everyone in the country, regardless of their background, ethnicity or where they live, is safer when the next crisis comes around. We are doing this in memory of our loved ones, and to keep everyone else’s loved ones safe. We will do it, but we can’t do it alone.