Lobby Akkinola has skilled a range of emotions since his father Femi’s demise in April 2020 due to Covid-19. The 60-year-old key worker’s passing left Lobby searching for solutions and questioning why his father was left vulnerable to the virus. This led him to affix thousands of different bereaved families in demanding a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.
“We fought to get the federal government to arrange the Covid inquiry and we did so because we know that to save lives in the future we want to learn lessons from errors in the handling of the pandemic,” Lobby mentioned. He hopes the inquiry will hold the government accountable and provide suggestions to vary how public health crises are managed in the future.
The COVID inquiry, chaired by retired decide Lady Heather Hallett, might be one of the necessary public inquiries in historical past, with over 226,000 people having died from the virus within the UK alone. The inquiry will study a broad range of matters, from health and social care to lockdowns, testing, and vaccine distribution.
Although the inquiry will feature testimonies from bereaved families, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, representing round 6,000 relatives, was dissatisfied when their request for in-person testimonies was denied due to logistical reasons. Instead, family members shall be included via an online portal referred to as Every Story Matters. Lobby hopes this determination will be reconsidered.
The inquiry is ready to run till summer 2026 and will be divided into separate modules, every masking a selected space. The first module will give consideration to the country’s “resilience and preparedness,” whereas the second module, “core UK decision-making and political governance,” will study decisions made by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authorities.
Expires and her group of attorneys, led by Hugo Keith KC, could have the benefit of examining contemporaneous proof and materials presented to the inquiry. However, the inquiry’s early days have been overshadowed by the government’s attempt to dam Lady Hallett from accessing WhatsApp messages and notes shared on Google Spaces by Boris Johnson and his decision-makers. The government is looking for a judicial evaluation, arguing that not all the information is Covid-related..