Covid-19 inquiry: Ministers abandoned public health principles during pandemic, says BMA chief

The UK government “lost control” of the covid pandemic in its early stages through poor testing infrastructure, a lack of public safety measures, and inadequate personal protective equipment, the BMA’s chair of council has told the UK’s public inquiry into the pandemic.Philip Banfield said the lack of sufficient PPE and inadequate guidance on how to use it had contributed to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings. He was giving evidence to the inquiry’s second module,1 which is focusing on the decision making and political governance that shaped the UK’s response.Banfield, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in North Wales who was working on wards throughout the pandemic, said that from the outset PPE shortages meant there was considerable lack of protection in healthcare settings outside intensive care units. “People were treating patients either with no masks or with fluid resistant surgical masks, which don’t protect from an airborne virus,” he…
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