Human price of Covid laid naked – appalling failures, countless worry and horror deaths

As the last witness speaks, laying bare “the human cost of Covid”, the co-chair of Bereaved Families for Justice says they fought because ordinary people refuse to be ignored

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This week, in the final week of witness statements heard at the long-running Covid inquiry, Glen Grundle spoke eloquently for so many of those bereaved. “We are all damaged, and damaged beyond repair,” said Glen, from Coleraine, Co Londonderry, a member of the Northern Ireland Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, of losing his mum Milda to a Do Not Resuscitate order. “This is about impact, and probably the greatest demonstration I can give of that impact is that I go to bed every night and I don’t sleep very well – but when I do, I really don’t care if I wake up in the morning.”

It has been a painful final week at Dorland House, one of a row of grand, stucco-fronted Victorian terraces on a West London street where testimonies have been heard by Baroness Heather Hallett since June 2023. The end of the 10th and final investigation – “the human cost of Covid” – perhaps the most painful of all.

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Standing outside the inquiry, Matt Fowler, co-chair of the national bereaved families group said: “Five years ago, we began calling for a public inquiry into the deaths of our loved ones. Today, after thousands of hours of hearings, the final witness has been heard by the inquiry we made happen… This happened because ordinary people refused to be ignored.”

Even away from Westbourne Terrace, the March sunshine brings back memories not just for bereaved families, but for the heroes of the pandemic – many of whom still suffer today from the after-effects of their service. Six years ago this month, on March 16, the UK Prime Minister did something then unthinkable, telling people to stop “non-essential contact and travel”. By March 23, 2020, we were in the country’s first lockdown.

Last March, the government held a special memorial day as a way of processing national grief. The second Covid Day of Reflection falls this Sunday – at the end of the very last week of evidence. A moment to pause and remember those who risked their lives to keep us all safe and to keep Britain going.

Sade Afolabi, 65, is a teacher and head of department at a secondary school in Lingfield, Surrey, who taught during Covid. The inquiry heard WhatsApp messages between Downing Street advisers which suggested Gavin Williamson, then Secretary of State for Education, wouldn’t allow teaching staff to wear masks as he was in “no surrender” mode towards teaching unions and did not want to “give (them) an inch”.

Teachers and families went unprotected. Sade’s husband, Ademola, then 62, became seriously ill in February 2020. “He was lying there, he wouldn’t eat, didn’t answer me,” she says. When paramedics came, her husband’s oxygen levels were dangerously low, and he was taken to East Surrey Hospital and intubated. “It was terrifying, we didn’t know if he would survive,” Sade says. “I couldn’t be with him. Our son came home from university – he thought he might be saying goodbye to his father.”

As he battled for his life, Sade’s school was closed, and she had to start making plans to teach online and support vulnerable pupils in school. “I was the only one who didn’t get Covid, so I was working and working and nursing everyone,” she remembers. “I had to keep going – I knew I was burned out, but I had no choice. I had to be the strong one.

“You become very anxious. I was cleaning everything with bleach, wiping down the steering wheel of the car, trying to be safe. My daughter started staying in a hotel as she was a nurse to keep us safe. We were clapping for frontline staff, but no one was giving them a pay increase. The government failed frontline staff.”

Mark Tilley, 52, an ambulance technician from Bognor Regis, West Sussex, gave evidence to the Covid inquiry in October 2024. During the pandemic, he volunteered to take additional shifts in Kent. While it is now well-known that £60million was made in profit by Medpro – linked to Baroness Michelle Mone – for PPE found to be not fit for purpose, Mark gives a stark example of basic shortages.

“We had one mop and bucket used by 40 ambulances,” he says. “The air con didn’t work in the back of ambulances. With others, I had to beg, borrow and steal oxygen, PPE and other essentials from wherever we could. There was no plan. We hadn’t prepared for doomsday. Patients were scared and so were we.”

Mark and other volunteer colleagues were sent to help out in areas they didn’t know. “I worked hundreds of hours of overtime as it was the right thing to do. It was my choice, but I put my life at risk. And my family. When I came home my son made me strip off before I came in.”

Between March 2020 and February 2022, there were 6,488 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate for healthcare workers across England and Wales. “I was appalled by the lack of understanding of health and safety,” Mark says. “At some locations we were expected to eat our meals at a table with a white line through the middle to maintain social distancing between crews. However, there were no disposable plates or cups, often only dirty ones from the last crew.”

It wasn’t just public sector workers who paid a price. When Michelle Whitehead came home from her job at a convenience store in the West Midlands, she used to sit in her car and cry. “It was a mess, a really awful time,” the 52-year-old says. “At the start of my shift, I’d sit in my car and breathe to try and get ready to face the day. When I got home, I’d sit in my car crying because I didn’t want my son to see me breaking down.”

The Covid inquiry Module 2 report found those working in low-paid employment were more at risk. “There was so much fear,” Michelle says. “People were angry and they took that out on us. Have you watched Lord of the Flies? It was like that – people turned into scavengers. I’d get shouted at because people couldn’t buy what they wanted. People were just barging in, and I had things thrown at me – someone threw a basket at me. I don’t think people realise what it was like going to work every day, being so frightened.”

The TUC is a participant in the hearings, and has stood by workers whose lives were destroyed or changed. “We owe it to those who lost their lives – and to those workers who put their lives at risk – to make sure our public services are resilient enough to cope with another pandemic,” says Paul Nowak, the TUC’s general secretary. “That means sustained investment in health and social care and its workforce.

“The Conservatives took a sledgehammer to our cherished public services, leaving the NHS on its knees and struggling to cope when Covid-19 hit. The Labour government has rightly increased health and education funding in the Budget, and gave many public service workers their first proper pay rise in years. But this cannot be a one-off.”

Nowak says day-one sick pay will be a “game-changer” for millions in any future pandemic. But he adds: “Covid showed us strong public services – and a supported workforce – are vital for the nation’s health and resilience.” Six years on, Britain is still coming to terms with our experiences of the pandemic. A series of detailed reports and reflections from the public inquiry will continue into 2027.

*For details on the commemorative programme, visit dayofreflection.campaign.gov.uk

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