Inquiry finds Britain was ill-prepared for COVID-19 pandemic and failed its citizens

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Inquiry finds Britain was ill-prepared for COVID-19 pandemic and failed its citizens

2024-07-19 01:29 Last Updated At：01:31

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government was ill-prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and serious errors in planning failed its citizens, an inquiry found Thursday.

Retired judge Heather Hallett, who is leading the ongoing inquiry, said the government wrongly believed in 2019 that it was one of the best-prepared countries in the world for an outbreak and it anticipated the wrong pandemic — influenza.

“This belief was dangerously mistaken," Hallett said in releasing her first report. “In reality, the U.K. was ill-prepared for dealing with the whole-system civil emergency of a pandemic, let alone the coronavirus pandemic that actually struck.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for more than 235,000 deaths in the U.K. through the end of 2023 — one of the highest death tolls in the world.

“Today’s report confirms what many have always believed — that the U.K. was under-prepared for COVID-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed U.K. citizens," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, referring to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“The safety and security of the country should always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry and putting better measures in place to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic," he said.

The first report from the inquiry, based on hearings that began in June 2023, was focused only on pandemic preparedness and didn't place blame on any individual.

A second phase looking at the government’s response, including the “partygate” scandal in which then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff broke their own rules by hosting work parties, is due later. A third phase will look into what lessons can be learned from how the nation handled the crisis. The inquiry is due to hold hearings until 2026.

Hallett found that an outdated 2011 pandemic strategy for flu wasn't flexible enough to adapt to a crisis nearly a decade later and was abandoned almost immediately.

“There were fatal strategic flaws underpinning the assessment of the risks faced by the U.K., how those risks and their consequences could be managed and prevented from worsening and how the state should respond,” Hallett said.

There also was a lack of focus on what was needed to deal with a rapidly transmissible disease, and not enough done to build up a system to test, trace and isolate infected patients.

Hallett said in her 217-page report that the U.K. needs to be better prepared for the next pandemic — one that could be even deadlier.

“The U.K. will again face a pandemic that, unless we are better prepared, will bring with it immense suffering and huge financial cost and the most vulnerable in society will suffer the most,” she said.

Hallett recommended that a new pandemic strategy be developed and tested every three years, and that government and political leaders should be accountable for having preparedness and resilience systems in place. She also said that outside experts should be used to prevent “the known problem of groupthink."

“Unless the lessons are learned, and fundamental change is implemented, that effort and cost will have been in vain when it comes to the next pandemic," Hallett said. "Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.”

Elkan Abrahamson, who represents the nearly 7,000 members of the COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, applauded Hallett for adopting most of its recommendations to prevent a repeat disaster.

“However, it is extremely disappointing that the vulnerable were ignored in the recommendations and there were no proposals for dealing with racial inequality, health inequalities or the effects of austerity,” Abrahamson said.

South Korea's Constitutional Court is set to rule on the impeachment of Yoon

2025-04-04 10:04 Last Updated At：10:10

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court is in session Friday to rule on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, four months after the conservative leader threw the country into turmoil with an ill-fated declaration of martial law. It will either remove him from office or restore his powers.

The court was scheduled to issue its verdict in a nationally televised session to begin at 11 a.m. A ruling to uphold parliament's impeachment and remove Yoon from office requires the support of at least six of the court's eight justices.

If the court orders Yoon removed, South Korea must hold a new presidential election within two months. If the court overturns his impeachment, Yoon will immediately return to presidential duties.

Thousands of Yoon's supporters and opponents gathered in downtown Seoul to await the ruling, as police sought to head off potential violence.

Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 lasted only six hours before he was forced to lift it after the liberal opposition-controlled legislature quickly managed to vote it down. Later in December, the assembly impeached Yoon, suspending his powers and sending his case to the Constitutional Court. Yoon is facing a separate criminal trial for alleged rebellion.

Whatever Friday’s verdict is, experts predict it will further deepen domestic divides. In the past four months, millions have taken to the streets to denounce or support Yoon, deepening South Korea’s already severe conservative-liberal division.

By Friday morning, the area surrounding the court was a maze of portable walls, folding fences, fiberglass barricades, and hundreds of police buses and vans — some with their wheels tied together to prevent protesters from moving them — sealing off nearly every road and alley leading to the court. Officers guarded the narrow gaps between vehicles and barricades, directing pedestrians through designated channels, checking IDs, and instructing them to walk only in a straight direction. The military said it plans to heighten its own surveillance posture.

There was a carnival-like atmosphere at an anti-Yoon rally near the old royal Palace that dominates Seoul's downtown. Patriotic music blared from huge speakers as thousands waved banners supporting opposition leader Lee and denouncing Yoon. Some danced and sang along, while others chanted slogans and shook their fists. Some people came dressed in cute blue bear costumes — a protest mascot that uses the opposition's colors — with Lee stickers covering them, or giant plaster heads resembling Lee.

The most contentious issue at Yoon's impeachment trial was why he sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, election offices and other places after declaring martial law.

Yoon has said he dispatched soldiers to the assembly to maintain order and that his declaration of martial law was a desperate attempt to bring attention to the “wickedness” of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party. But senior military and police officials who were sent to the assembly have testified Yoon ordered them to detain rival politicians and prevent the assembly from voting to lift his order.

Although the period of martial law ended without violence, the impeachment motion accuses Yoon of violating the constitution and other laws by suppressing assembly activities, attempting to detain politicians and undermining peace.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s acting leader, has repeatedly urged the rival sides to accept whatever ruling the court makes.

Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.