Two leading health experts with connections to Newcastle gave evidence during the first week the independent Covid-19 Inquiry - highlighting "quite a few flaws" in pandemic planning.
Professor Clare Bambra of Newcastle University and Professor Michael Marmot who is patron of Tyneside charity Healthworks prepared a joint statement and gave evidence before inquiry chair Baroness Hallett on Friday. Both professors work extensively on health inequalities.
At the Inquiry, both academics highlighted how they felt, especially when it comes to a lack of forethought about the impact of the pandemic on different socio-ethnic groups, emergency planning had been "lacking". They also said in future, at-risk groups should be prioritised for infectious disease testing and vaccinations.
