Ignore the Johnson and Sunak circus: these are the real lessons from the Covid inquiry

‘Knowing he faces a general election soon, Rishi Sunak seemed in campaign mode, which meant he ended up saying nothing of substance.’ Photograph: UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA

I don’t envy Heather Hallett, the chair of the Covid-19 inquiry. Over the months, she has patiently listened to witness after witness, and reviewed thousands of statements, emails, policy notes, diaries and WhatsApp messages. It would be easy to get lost in the details, especially when many are focused on the political blame game and in-fighting in No 10. But we can’t lose sight of the main objectives of this process: accountability to the public for decisions taken during the pandemic, and learning lessons for the next one so the UK is better prepared.

Here’s my take on where we have got to in the second module. It is clear the UK could have handled the pandemic better. This is not compared with some idealised handling of 2020 with the benefit of hindsight, but with other similar nations. Our excess mortality is second highest in western Europe, and far higher than Norway, Finland and Denmark, as well as east Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.