[Warning, this blog is long]
I have been silent for some time… I know, I know. I started looking at Covid-19 and ended up in some very strange places indeed. ‘Here be dragons.’ I ended up wandering about, making absolutely no progress. Eventually, I ground to a halt.
My insurmountable barrier was highlighted in an article entitled ‘Was the Surgisphere case a one-off? Or does it highlight the bigger systemic problem of research fraud?’:
‘If you search for scientific research articles with COVID-19 in the title, you’ll see more than 17,000 articles published since the start of 2020, but this vital research is being undermined by weak or even fraudulent research practices. Perhaps the highest profile example so far is the Surgisphere case which saw a small US company seemingly fabricate a database, the data for which was purportedly from the medical records of nearly 100,000 COVID-19 patients treated in 167 hospitals.
This database was then analysed and published in two of the world’s most influential medical journals. Both papers have since been redacted by the journals, but what damage has already been done? And is this a one-off incident or a reflection of the fraud that plagues academic research?
…whilst this isn’t reason enough to begin accusing all medical journals or academics of research fraud, it still is a phenomenon which has yet to be taken as seriously as it should be. Nearly 1 in 50 scientists report having falsified or fabricated their data, with up to 1/3 utilising questionable research practices. This goes up to around 7 in 50 and nearly ¾ respectively when researchers were asked about the research practices of their colleagues.’ 1
Surely peer-review should have picked up the Surgisphere fraud? You think? The same article quoted Richard Horton, editor in chief of the Lancet, where the Surgisphere papers were published. He had this to say in his defence:
‘… the peer review process is not designed to capture research misconduct.’
To be honest I don’t feel this is the most robust defence I have ever encountered. If peer-review cannot pick up fraud then, what, exactly, is the point of it. Or, extending that thought one step further, if medical journals contain a great deal of made-up research, what is the point of them?
In addition to the uselessness of peer-review, Richard Horton has previously stated the following about scientific research:
‘Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.’
Marcia Angell was the editor the New England Journal of Medicine for many years. It was, and remains, the number one medical journal with regard to its ‘impact factor.’ She had this to say:
‘It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.’
So, who, or what, does capture research misconduct and fraud? Who shall guard the guardians? It appears it is everyone’s job, and yet no-one’s. Let’s just hide the problem under the carpet and hope no-one notices.
Richard Smith was editor of the British Medical Journal for many years. His view:
The poor quality of medical research is widely acknowledged, yet disturbingly the leaders of the medical profession seem only minimally concerned about the problems and make no apparent efforts to find a solution.’
He noticed, I noticed a long time ago. It would be nice if the rest of the world woke up and took notice too.
If as many as three-quarters (75%) of researchers may be using questionable research practices. And fourteen per cent of may simply fabricate their data then what does it mean? What it means is that we are in a very dark place indeed. Can we believe anything at all. And I mean at all.
With regard to Covid-19, I spent many months trying to work out what happened. Searching for the actions that were beneficial, and the most harmful. What could I learn? Unfortunately, I found there is almost no firm ground to stand on. I kept sliding down into quicksand as facts splintered in front of my eyes.
If we really want to do better next time a pandemic strikes – and I think there most certainly will be a next time – then we have to know what really went on. So many questions to be answered. Such as, and these are in no particular order:
- How did it start/where did it come from (can we stop that happening again?)
- How accurate was the modelling that drove lockdowns
- How many people were infected
- How many people died
- What was the infection fatality rate (IFR)
- What treatments worked best, and why
- Did the testing regimes work well, could they be improved – or were they a waste of time
- Did lockdowns have beneficial effects
- Did lockdown have damaging effects
- Were the new mRNA vaccines beneficial, or not
- How much money was spent and/or wasted – and the impact on our economy
I think these are key. You may have your own. But will any of them be looked at? I fear not. As for the official UK inquiry itself. It seems a complete and utter waste of time, effort and money.
At the end of this blog, I have copied the terms of reference of the inquiry. Some people still cling to the forlorn hope that when it is complete we will finally know what happened. Ah … no, not a chance. The terms of reference only serve to highlight the fact that they are carefully dancing around every major issue. Below is an example of its scope:
- i) preparedness and resilience;
- ii) how decisions were made, communicated, recorded, and implemented
- iii) decision-making between the governments of the UK;
- iv) the roles of, and collaboration between, central government, devolved administrations, regional and local authorities, and the voluntary and community sector;
Wow. This is a bureaucrat’s dream. Let us study a plan of how the deck chairs were arranged, whilst the Titanic was slipping beneath the waves.
Will the inquiry look at whether lockdowns actually did any good? Anything about the accuracy of the forecasting models? Or the Covid-19 tests? Um … no. Silence is the stern reply.
In such a way does the dead hand of bureaucracy enfold and suck all oxygen from the debate. It is clear there will be no meaningful scrutiny of the big issue. No blame apportioned. Nothing learned.
The inquiry is all about process, not results. You could say it is a giant whitewash. I couldn’t possibly comment. Yet, despite avoiding all of the big issues, by Feb 2025 the inquiry had cost £200m ($268M) – and counting.2 Jeez.
But what of the important questions, starting with what, or perhaps who, caused the pandemic? I have read articles confirming that Covid-19 absolutely, definitely, emerged from wet markets in Wuhan. Here is one from 2024.
COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market animals after all, suggests latest study ‘The finding comes from a reanalysis of genomic data.’ 3
This quotes a study from the highly respected Journal Nature.
Here is an alternative view.
Parliamentary questions in the European Commission in 2024’ ‘In 2020, Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service reportedly assessed that there was an 80–90 % likelihood of an accidental lab leak.’ 4
Which of these contradictory ‘facts’ is true? Because both cannot be.
Would you like to dig deeper? Well, good luck with that. You can join me in my hopeless wanderings. Trying to find answers to this runs straight up against forces such as … the Chinese Government. Who have done all in their power to ensure no-one can blame them for, well anything. ‘Oh you mean we shouldn’t have cleared out the lab, so no-one can find anything … sorry.’
Then we have Anthony Fauci and the NIH throwing shade ‘What, you mean we set up a gain of function laboratory in Wuhan to look at making coronaviruses more infective and deadly by adding a furin cleavage to the spike protein …’ [Maybe they didn’t do this exactly. I think they did, and they know it.]
But there are no certain answers to be found here. Everything is, and will remain, circumstantial. What of the next question. How many people died of Covid-19? This, perhaps the most important question of all, slips through your fingers like mercury.
There are several reasons for this. I do not intend to look at them all, only a few. The first difficulty I ran into is that when the pandemic hit there were no Sars-Cov2 tests available. It took several months to ramp the system up.
So, how could anyone write Covid-19 on a death certificate, if they didn’t know the patient was infected with Sars-Cov2? Answer, they couldn’t. But they did … Indeed, I did. A few of my ‘total guesswork figures’ are buried in there, somewhere.
Working as a doctor in the NHS, the one thing I know for certain is that there was enormous pressure exerted from above to write Covid-19 on as many death certificates as possible. Which clearly inflated the number of deaths. By how much? Who knows.
Then, when testing did finally arrive en masse, people dying ‘with’ Covid-19, were then added to those who died ‘of’ Covid-19. To explain in a little more detail why this was ridiculous …
Someone could arrive in hospital with a condition that had nothing to do with Covid. However, if they had a positive test on admission, and then died within twenty-eight days – from the condition that had nothing to do with Covid – they would be added to the Covid-19 death statistics.
And the dread Covid-19 counter, which they kept showing on the news, night after night,l clicked over by one. Another ‘scary’ Covid-19 death …that had nothing to do with the virus.
Died of or died with? These are very different and distinct things when it comes to recording what someone actually dies …of. The proximate cause of death. Mixing them together resulted in a significant misclassification of deaths. Almost entirely in one direction. Overestimation. By how much … who knows. Here from the UK Health Security Agency:
How do we count COVID-19 deaths?
We have counted deaths following COVID-19 infection since the start of the pandemic. Monitoring how many people die following infection with a recently emerged virus tells us how severe it is. It can also help us understand where the disease is spreading and who is worst affected by it.
We explained previously how COVID-19 deaths are recorded in the United Kingdom. There are two main reports:
- Deaths within 28 days of a reported COVID-19 infection (deaths with COVID)
- Death where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death registration (deaths from COVID)
We started counting deaths with COVID-19 for rapid pandemic monitoring when there was a need to publish figures on a daily basis to inform decisions about our pandemic response. 5
Moving further down the line. How accurate were the tests themselves? Or, to be more specific. How many false positives were there. This represents a massive elephant in the room that was barely mentioned at the time. Most people are blissfully unaware there even was a problem.
However, this could well have been the biggest issue of all. If false positive tests stood at, say 2%, and you did ten million tests, you will have ended-up diagnosing two hundred thousand people with Covid-19 … who did not have Covid-19. [My 2% figure may be an underestimate].
The impact of false positive COVID-19 results in an area of low prevalence
The UK’s COVID-19 testing programme uses real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect viral RNA. Public Health England reports that RT-PCR assays show a specificity of over 95%, meaning that up to 5% of cases are false positives.’ 6
In the month of January 2022 alone, ninety-one million tests were done in the UK. If false positives were running at 2% (it could well have been more), then we will have resulted in nearly two million Covid-19 diagnoses. In people who did not have the disease.
If this went on a for a year, you would end up with close to twenty-five million false positive tests.
Think upon that. Twenty-five million ‘cases’ in one year made up entirely by false positive tests. If the true figure was 5%, this number rises to very nearly seventy-five million. Yes, seventy-five million wrong Covid-19 diagnoses. Which is very close to the entire population of the United Kingdom.
I don’t think this figure can possibly be correct, although the maths tell us that it could be. One possible conclusion from this is that no-one actually contracted Covid-19 at all. Every single diagnosis was a false positive. Here be dragons indeed.
Creating a test that misses the diagnosis (poor sensitivity) is bad. But creating a test with a high false positive rate (poor specificity) can be worse. Especially if, like me, you are trying to work out who did, and who did not, die of Covid-19.
You can run this thought experiment in another direction. Around fifty thousand people die in the UK every month. Most people die in hospital, and everyone admitted to hospital had a Covid-19 test on admission. Ergo, during the Covid-19 pandemic, many of them will have died within twenty-eight days of a false positive test.
So, how many ‘false positive’ Covid-19 deaths were there? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine. But just to give an extreme example of how ridiculous this could have been. A man is hit by a bus, he then dies three weeks later from his injuries. He had a positive Covid-19 test on admission
This man will have been recorded as a Covid-19 death. What, even if the test was a false positive? I don’t know if that exact scenario ever took place. What I do know is that there have to have been many ‘false positive deaths.’ Thousands, tens of thousands? Again, who knows.
A final example on topic of Covid-19 deaths comes from the resource Worldometer. 7 This website faithfully recorded information about Coronavirus: number of cases, deaths, ‘those who recovered’, amongst a few other things. Worldometer states that there were, in total:
- 704,753,890 cases
- 7,010,681 deaths
- 675,619,811 recovered
[It stopped counting and shut down the Coronavirus section in April 2024]
So, there you have it. There were seven million deaths worldwide, over four years. Do you believe this figure? Personally, I treat it as nothing more than a work of fiction. Reverse engineered to result in a one per cent Infection Fatality Rate (IFR). Seven hundred million cases, seven million deaths. One in a hundred died …ho hum.
Can anyone really believe that less than one in ten people were ever infected with Sars-Cov2, over a four period? Nah. That figure is simply unbelievable.
One of the graphs looked at daily deaths.

You will notice deaths fell off the edge of a cliff at the end of April 2022. Was this due to vaccination? This seems unlikely, as mass vaccination started in January 2021. Some fifteen months earlier. Clearly, something else happened …if so, what?
As with almost everything Covid related, you can spend a lot of time looking at a graph like this and wondering.
- Is it accurate?
- If it is accurate, what caused the drop?
But if it is not accurate, all bets are off. At this point you are perhaps getting some idea of why I ground to a halt. The only thing I was left with were the ‘facts’ I wished to believe. Unfortunately, this is not science. Science is dispassionate and objective, and although I try to be, I am not.
As for the vaccines.
Here you must carefully guard what you say, or you will be cancelled, crushed and denounced.
The mRNA vaccines were fully tested for safety and efficacy before they were launched. There were no short-cuts in their development, or the -70⁰C distribution system – despite the speed at which it all took place. They are highly effective at preventing morbidity and mortality from Covid-19. They are saving around fifteen million deaths a year. They have virtually no adverse effects. Beep, message ends.
[But, but, according to Worldometer, only seven million people died of Covid-19 over four years. So, how can you be saving fifteen million deaths a year?]
As Richard Horton reminds us:
‘Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.’
Or, to quote John Ioannidis, from his seminal paper in 2005:
‘Why most published research findings are false.’
‘There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias.’ 8
Of course, researchers have since claimed that Ioannidis’s research is false. ‘Researchers prove that researchers claims of false research are, themselves, false.’ Shocker.
So … so what? What can we learn? Well, what can you learn?
What I learned, or perhaps simply reinforced in my mind, is that we are in great danger of entering a new ‘post-enlightenment’ scientific era. Maybe we have already entered it. Particularly with regard to medical scientific research.
Forget facts. Or, if you like facts, we can make them up to suit whatever narrative you prefer. Believe whatever you like, believe whomsoever you like? I have never written the word ‘whomsoever’ before. I rather like it.
Sadly. Although I should perhaps say, terrifyingly, the scientific method first outlined by Francis Bacon around four hundred years ago, suffered a potentially mortal blow with Covid-19.
I have tried, and tried, to work out what actually took place. Mainly so that I could help people understand what we should do next time around. If there is to be a next time around.
Now? Now, I do not believe this is possible. Nor that it would be welcomed anyway. The moment I put down anything controversial, someone from the likes of BBC ‘Verify’ – some twenty-one-year-old with a degree in fine arts from Oxford – would come down on me like a ton of bricks. Quoting fact after fact, from reliable sources, and ‘experts’ to prove that I am wrong. After all, their facts are so much factier than mine. Yes, I just made up that word – and that’s a fact.
You may be wondering what point I am trying to make here. The point I am trying to make is that the only certain lesson we can learn from Covid-19 is that science, especially medical science, snapped and broke. Humpty Dumpty most certainly had a great fall. Can all the King’s horses and all the King’s men put him together again?
Certainly not if the King himself points down at the wreckage and declares that ‘this egg is not broken, this is exactly how an egg is supposed to look. In future all eggs shall be as this one.’
I am now waiting to lead an army of people waving pitchforks and burning torches, to descend on the Houses of Parliament and demand that medical research is fixed – or else. I am not quite sure what the ‘or else’ might’ be. Something that will make the World shake, no doubt.
No, I should not make light of this. It is far too important. Medical research has become terribly distorted, nay corrupted. I have known about this, and lectured about this, for many years. Covid-19 simply brought many issues to the surface – for those with eyes that wish to see.
Do I think all researchers are corrupt, and that all research is corrupt? No, of course not. However, if three quarters of medical researchers are using ‘questionable research practices’ then the vast majority of research is, at best, untrustworthy. At worst, crumple, throw, bin.
In addition, if major medical journals, and their peer-reviewers, are unable pick-up research fraud. Then what, exactly, is the point of them. To quote Richard Horton again (sic) half of what is in them is may simply be untrue … ‘Which half, please. Oh, you don’t know.’
If another pandemic hits we must ensure that objective scientific research is brought to bear on the matter. No fraudulent research, no made-up figures, no silencing those who have different ideas. There can certainly be no … ‘The Science’. No committees to decide on approved statements, and scare the public into mute acceptance.
We can also have no statements such as that from Jacinda Adern, Prime Minister of New Zealand at the time. You may remember this.
“We will continue to be your single source of truth,” and that, “Unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.” The Truth’.If that statement didn’t scare you, you were probably already dead.
‘You mean, I can eat in a restaurant without wearing a mask, but when I stand up to go to the toilet, I have to put it back on again…’ sounds good to me. Yes, for this is The Truth.
Alice (laughing): “It’s no use trying… one can’t believe impossible things”
The White Queen: “I daresay you haven’t had much practice. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”
There can also be no accepted narratives. Tales told purely to support idiotic political decisions and a rampant pharmaceutical industry bent on making vast profits from new treatments. Alongside those manufacturing useless PPE, and suchlike, then selling it for ridiculous sums of money. Before it all got thrown away, for being useless.
We also cannot hold open the door open, ever again, for those actors who most certainly do not have your best interests at heart. Those who crave power, above all. Many of them joined the game during Covid and threw their money and influence into the ring, and pushed, and pushed, with great enthusiasm. Happy to use fear to gain power, and also make more money. A game as old as time.
These actors, I fear, would like nothing better than another pandemic to expand their power even further. Will they find a way to manufacture another horribly scary pandemic? It does seem there are those eyeing up that very possibility. Disease X waits in the wings.
Maybe I am just being paranoid, but for some reason, I am reminded of War of the Worlds:
‘No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter…
… across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.’
Klaus Schwab anyone?
You think not.
I hope not. But I can certainly picture him stroking a white cat in an underground cave. He looks the type. ‘… no, Mr Bond, I expect you to die.’
So, what next? Now that I have given up on Covid-19?
I am writing another book. I feel driven to do so. My provisional title is ‘The Decline and Fall of the Medical Empire.’ I will attempt to make it objective, but I sense it may end up as a controlled howl of anguish. Railing against the decline and fall of medical science.
It may turn into a call to arms. My attempt to mirror Martin Luther, who nailed his famous ‘95 Theses’ to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The starting gun in his attempt to reform the corrupt Catholic Church which was making vast sums of money from selling indulgences, which represented a get out of purgatory free card, if you like. Another big, out of control, corrupt organisation from history.
Do those working in mainstream medical research believe the system is, effectively broken? Of course not. They will happily accept there are a few bad players here and there. As for the need to tear the entire structure apart and start again … little chance of support there.
But I have come to the conclusion that drastic action needs to be taken. And if that is ever going to happen the public must become aware of what is happening under their very noses, and become suitably outraged. This might then put sufficient pressure on politicians to actually do something. Did I really write that about politicians?
There are of course great barriers to be overcome. Complacency and inertia represent the twin giants that bar the way to all change. If they can be shifted to one side, those powerful players who profit from the current situation will raise themselves to reassure everyone that all is well. Anyone who believes otherwise is a conspiracy theorist and … blah, blah, blah. Nothing to see here, please move along.
Can things be made better? I damned well hope so. I certainly aim to tilt at those windmills. As for Covid-19 …
My conclusions on Covid-19
A virus that had been created in a lab in Wuhan escaped. It was covered up, then got out of control. Which allowed it to spread widely before anyone knew about it. Virologists and epidemiologists were certain this truly was the ‘big one’ they have been warning about for years. They ran around like Chicken-little shouting that the sky is falling, the sky is falling. And the politicians took heed.
China locked-down, because they can, and the rest of the world decided to follow suit. In order to justify such drastic actions, the fatality rate of the virus was vastly overestimated, especially in the young. In large part to terrify the population into doing exactly what they were told.
Having created a frightening narrative, with a deadly untreatable virus at its core, the only ‘acceptable’ escape route was through vaccination. Normally it takes years to develop, and safety test, a new vaccine, which would take far too long. The world could not cope with ten years of lock-down. There would be no world economy left.
So, the mRNA vaccines were rushed through with little true oversight. They were launched, then virtually forced on the public. Were they truly effective and safe? Who knows, who cares. The pandemic ended, all is well. Hoorah.
Was this all a conspiracy? No, I don’t think so. It was a gigantic earth-shaking cock-up. The conspiracy was, as they usually are, an unspoken conspiracy to cover everything up. The end.
Next time? Next time, the playbook will be exactly the same, with added scariness, a greater clampdown on freedoms, and far more censorship. Alternative views, and those espousing them, will be hunted down and silenced. There will only be, the narrative.
But … always bear in mind the boy who cried wolf.
UK Covid-19 Inquiry Terms of Reference
The Inquiry will examine, consider and report on preparations and the response to the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, up to and including the Inquiry’s formal setting-up date, 28 June 2022.
In carrying out its work, the Inquiry will consider reserved and devolved matters across the United Kingdom, as necessary, but will seek to minimise duplication of investigation, evidence gathering and reporting with any other public inquiry established by the devolved governments. To achieve this, the Inquiry will set out publicly how it intends to minimise duplication, and will liaise with any such inquiry before it investigates any matter which is also within that inquiry’s scope.
In meeting its aims, the Inquiry will:
- a) consider any disparities evident in the impact of the pandemic on different categories of people, including, but not limited to, those relating to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and equality categories under the Northern Ireland Act 1998;
- b) listen to and consider carefully the experiences of bereaved families and others who have suffered hardship or loss as a result of the pandemic. Although the Inquiry will not consider in detail individual cases of harm or death, listening to these accounts will inform its understanding of the impact of the pandemic and the response, and of the lessons to be learned;
- c) highlight where lessons identified from preparedness and the response to the pandemic may be applicable to other civil emergencies;
- d) have reasonable regard to relevant international comparisons; and
- e) produce its reports (including interim reports) and any recommendations in a timely manner.
The aims of the Inquiry are to:
- 1. Examine the COVID-19 response and the impact of the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and produce a factual narrative account, including:
- a) The public health response across the whole of the UK, including
- i) preparedness and resilience;
- ii) how decisions were made, communicated, recorded, and implemented;
- iii) decision-making between the governments of the UK;
- iv) the roles of, and collaboration between, central government, devolved administrations, regional and local authorities, and the voluntary and community sector;
- v) the availability and use of data, research and expert evidence;
- vi) legislative and regulatory control and enforcement;
- vii) shielding and the protection of the clinically vulnerable;
- viii) the use of lockdowns and other ‘non-pharmaceutical’ interventions such as social distancing and the use of face coverings;
- ix) testing and contact tracing, and isolation;
- x) the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the population, including but not limited to those who were harmed significantly by the pandemic;
- xi) the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the bereaved, including post-bereavement support;
- xii) the impact on health and care sector workers and other key workers;
- xiii) the impact on children and young people, including health, wellbeing and social care;
- xiv) education and early years provision;
- xv) the closure and reopening of the hospitality, retail, sport and leisure, and travel and tourism sectors, places of worship, and cultural institutions;
- xvi) housing and homelessness;
- xvii) safeguarding and support for victims of domestic abuse;
- xviii) prisons and other places of detention;
- xix) the justice system;
- xx) immigration and asylum;
- xxi) travel and borders; and
- xxii) the safeguarding of public funds and management of financial risk.
- b) The response of the health and care sector across the UK, including:
- i) preparedness, initial capacity and the ability to increase capacity, and resilience;
- ii) initial contact with official healthcare advice services such as 111 and 999;
- iii) the role of primary care settings such as General Practice;
- iv) the management of the pandemic in hospitals, including infection prevention and control, triage, critical care capacity, the discharge of patients, the use of ‘Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation’ (DNACPR) decisions, the approach to palliative care, workforce testing, changes to inspections, and the impact on staff and staffing levels
- v) the management of the pandemic in care homes and other care settings, including infection prevention and control, the transfer of residents to or from homes, treatment and care of residents, restrictions on visiting, workforce testing and changes to inspections;
- vi) care in the home, including by unpaid carers;
- vii) antenatal and postnatal care;
- viii) the procurement and distribution of key equipment and supplies, including PPE and ventilators;
- ix) the development, delivery and impact of therapeutics and vaccines;
- x) the consequences of the pandemic on provision for non-COVID related conditions and needs; and
- xi) provision for those experiencing long-COVID.
- c) The economic response to the pandemic and its impact, including governmental interventions by way of:
- i) support for businesses, jobs and the self-employed, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, loans schemes, business rates relief and grants;
- ii) additional funding for relevant public services;
- iii) additional funding for the voluntary and community sector; and
- iv) benefits and sick pay, and support for vulnerable people.
- a) The public health response across the whole of the UK, including
- 2. Identify the lessons to be learned from the above, to inform preparations for future pandemics across the UK.
References:
1: https://ti-health.org/content/surgisphere-covid-19-coronavirus-research-fraud-issue-lancet-nejm/
2: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/spending-ps200m-covid-inquiry-symbolic-britains-failure
3: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03026-9
4: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-001403_EN.html
5: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2023/01/27/changes-to-the-way-we-report-on-covid-19-deaths/
6: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7850182/
7: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ 8: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1182327/#:~:text=Simulations%20show%20that%20for%20most,problem%20and%20some%20corollaries%20thereof



