The enquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic is going to go on for years. Yet the answers to the three questions which its chair, Court of Appeal judge, “Baronness” Hallett is asking, are already known.
Yes, the preparation was inadequate, yes, the response was too little too late - and no, the lessons will not be learnt.
While it’s evident that this government did a worse job than some others, thanks to the buffoon at its helm, the virus caused havoc around the whole world. It is also true to say that it would, under any circumstances, be difficult to protect populations, whether in one country or on a world scale, from all of the consequences of a highly infectious and potentially lethal virus like SARS-CoV-2.
But it should also be remembered that the pandemic was only declared by the World Health Organisation on 11 March 2020, despite the fact that Chinese authorities had already reported a cluster of cases in Wuhan by 31 December 2019. So it took a whole 2 months, before action was taken, by which time the virus had already begun to spread around the world. And Johnson waited another 2 weeks!
What was the reason for taking this risk? Nothing but the fear of damaging the world capitalist economy, which depends on the free flow of people and goods - and thus profits - without hindrance. WHO “experts” had no power to impose anything without the say-so of western political leaders - the real arbiters of the fate of the rest of us.
And for them, profits will always trump health. The “West” and its populations - all of us here in Britain included - suffered deadly detriment because of the priorities of Western leaders.
A self-inflicted anti-china handicap
In fact it went even further, and tragically so. Since it was the Chinese medical establishment which sounded the virus alert, the response of the WHO was consciously distorted by the Trump/Johnson anti-China propaganda campaign. This undoubtedly contributed to the failure to jump into immediate action. And this politicking - which today goes so far as to raise the threat of a war against China - is again being summoned with the return to the “Chinese lab leak theory” of the origin of the pandemic.
It is not a coincidence. The blame game is a well-worn political device to divert attention away from real causes and real culprits. Digging into these can only reveal the lethal, aggravating and ultimately terminal fault which exists and threatens all of us - their failing capitalist economic system and its degenerate political superstructure. Today it covers up its decline by conjuring up enemies, by warmongering and by actual combat, like the proxy war against Russia being waged “with the skins of the Ukrainian people”.
The strike is a means to an end
Even a supposed attempt “to get to the truth” about Covid becomes a convenient diversion from the reality of the failing economy. Not that it is so easy for the government to cover it up. The cost of living crisis - and both its symptom and cause, i.e., inflation - is worse here in Britain for good reason.
Not only is this the oldest capitalist country in the world and also the most decrepit, but the one thing that helped the economy limp along in slightly better shape was its membership of the EU. And this was junked by the Brexiteers, who, in their contest with far-right UKIP, stirred up to new levels, anti-migrant and xenophobic prejudice. And that prejudice is now served up daily by the government in its campaign against “small boats”.
Yes, even if the number of refugees who land in Britain after a risky crossing is relatively few - not just compared to the 108.4m displaced people across the world, but also compared with Britain’s capacity to absorb them and the dire need to reinvigorate the shrunken and aging workforce.
Sunak may well dismiss the questions which the Covid Enquiry throws up for his government. He may even dismiss the deleterious economic effects of Brexit or the lack of success of his “small boats” policy. But what remains - and this he cannot dismiss - are the strikes which the working class - including junior doctors who worked tirelessly throughout the Covid pandemic - has mounted against the cut in real wages and the attacks on working conditions and jobs which his government and the capitalist class behind it, are responsible for.
Striking today remains the only means available for our class to call them to account. It remains the only way to make them - instead of us - pay for the crisis. And it’s also the first step towards change - building a new system which has as its goal not profit, but the fulfilling of human need.