Covid inquiry to publish report on vaccines and treatments

Campaigners have urged the Government to be better prepared for another pandemic as the inquiry into Covid-19 is set to publish its latest report.

A YouGov poll has revealed that seven in 10 (69%) NHS workers believe the health service is poorly prepared for another pandemic.

None of the 1,006 NHS workers surveyed said they believe the service is “very well prepared”.

Nicola Brook, solicitor from Broudie Jackson Canter which represents more than 7,000 families from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “Despite living through the horrors of the pandemic, we find ourselves in the unbelievable situation of being less equipped as a nation to make vaccines today than we were at the start of the pandemic.

“We call on the chair to recognise this disaster and to demand the Government works towards improving our readiness in vaccines and therapeutics now and not when the next pandemic hits.”

The UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry is to publish its fourth report on vaccines and drugs during the crisis.

As the virus spread across the world in early 2020, hospitals were flooded with patients and, with the prospects of a vaccine a distant hope, scientists got to work looking for new drug therapies or repurposing existing treatments.

The international Recovery trial, led by academics at the University of Oxford, made a crucial breakthrough identifying dexamethasone as an effective treatment – the first proven treatment to reduce coronavirus deaths.

Experts said the finding in June 2020 was “critical” to the pandemic response and it was suggested that in the first nine months after the finding, the cheap and widely available steroid drug saved more than one million lives around the world.

Scientists also joined a race to find an effective vaccine against the disease – seen by many as the way out of the crisis.

The UK deployed a Vaccine Task Force to find the most promising vaccines and pre-order them for speedy deployment once approved by regulators.

In November 2020, Pfizer/BioNTech announced that its Covid-19 vaccine was both safe and effective, swiftly followed by a similar announcement about the Moderna jab. Days later the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was also announced to be effective at protecting against disease.

Regulators worked in tandem with scientists so the jabs could be approved as quickly as possible.

On December 8 2020, grandmother Margaret Keenan, then 90, became the first person in the world to be given a Covid-19 jab outside of a clinical trial as she received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab in Coventry.

The Oxford jab was approved for use on December 30 2020, hailed as a “massive step forward in our fight against coronavirus” by then health secretary Matt Hancock.

The NHS rolled out the vaccines at pace prioritising the most vulnerable in society.

Thousands of vaccination sites were set up across the UK including in football stadiums, shopping malls and cathedrals.

Clinics operated 24 hours a day to get people vaccinated as quickly as possible.

According to NHS data, as of February 1 2026, more than 184 million vaccinations have been administered in England.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty said that the “volunteer spirit” of the British public drove the success of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.

“Over a million people in the UK volunteered for clinical trials and other studies, and that was really what drove this, and it’s that volunteer spirit which I think underlies many of the successes that you outline,” he told the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry during hearings held in January last year.

The inquiry will publish its fourth report on Thursday which will make a series of recommendations about the development of Covid-19 vaccines and the vaccine rollout. It will also examine the treatment of Covid-19 through both existing and new medications.

One of the issues to be highlighted in the report will include unequal uptake of the vaccine and the Government’s response.

Inquiry chairwomen Baroness Heather Hallett is also expected to address concerns from groups representing people who have suffered death or harm related to vaccines.

Lawyers representing the groups have called for improvements to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme which sees people vaccinated in the UK awarded £120,000 if they have been harmed as a result.

Leigh Day partner Sarah Moore, who is representing 48 claimants who have been vaccine harmed or bereaved, said: “The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, in its current form, fails to provide timely or adequate support to those who have been seriously injured or bereaved due to vaccine side effects.”

Solicitor Terry Wilcox, of Hudgell Solicitors which represents a number of vaccine injured groups, said people who have been harmed or died “deserve acknowledgment of the impact on their lives, which for many has been life-changing illness and loss of loved ones, and changes made to ensure they are properly supported, and that lessons are learned for the future”.