Thread by @PaulNuki

The #CovidInquiry came roaring to life today and claimed its first victim.

The sad unfortunate was tortured over several hours before being chopped into little pieces.

But the victim in question was NOT David Cameron. Now read on....

Dave did appear but the KC was, rightly, not going to waste her energy.

He's done more to damage Britain than any other PM and everyone knows that.

He said he gave us austerity so there was money "in the pot" for things like Covid.

Shortly after, he was quietly ushered out.

No, the real victim of today's proceedings was this poor chap - Sir Chris Wormald, perm sec of the Department of Health and Social Care.

He took a kicking the likes of which I've not seen before at an Inquiry - and one that both he and DHSC richly deserve.

First, he was asked about a Sept 2016 Departmental Board meeting at which there was to be a "deep dive" into some of the most "grave risks" the UK faced, including a pandemic.

The board had no legal clout but that was Ok because the Sec of State, one Jeremy Hunt, did and he was supposed to be there.

Alas, just as he would go missing in the middle of Exercise Cygnus a few months later, HUNT was AWOL.

And the Board was angry about it...

Why? Because they were dealing with some serious s**t. Huge numbers sick, an economic cost estimated at 71 times higher than the £28bn mentioned in the nation's pandemic plan, school closures etc...

And the country was not prepared for any of it.

Even a "moderate pandemic would over run the system", said the declassified docs. In the extreme, "quarantine" (ie lockdown) might be even be needed.

So, yes, the Board had good reason to be angry Hunt was not there..

No surprise then that the KC for the Inquiry should ask poor old Sir Chris: "What steps did you take to ensure the Sec of Sate attend future Board Meetings addressing matters of the highest importance?"

"I don't recall" stammered Sir Chris, who had clearly done sod all. He had "no record" of doing anything. Pushed on whether he had even raised it with Hunt the answer was no. Why? "I cannot remember my thought process at the time", he dissembled.

There was worse to come.
DHSC's entire strategy was up the swanny. They knew a CoV could be been huge - it was in the risk assessment - but they only had a pandemic plan for flu. And this despite knowing the features of any new pathogen could not be known in advance

Sir Chris was stuck. None of it made sense. The flu plan had no serious measures to stop it because flu spread so fast but how could you know that when you accepted the characteristics of a new flu bug could not be known in advance?

And why if emerging infectious diseases like CoVs could be catastrophic for the UK, as the risk resister showed, did they only estimate the maximum number of deaths at a few thousand?

Perhaps sensing his career was already over, Sir Chris finally spilled the beans. It will not go down well with Hunt, Cameron et al because it kicks their get out of jail card from under them, but it is at least the truth...

The 2011 pandemic flu plan, said Sir Chris, was our only pandemic plan and always intended for other bugs like Covid.

The thinking went like this: "If we're ready for flu we're ready for anything", he told the Inquiry.

And the terrible error in this? Well, it was wrong.