PM Boris Johnson backs public inquiry into UK's handling of COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2022

Amid the world mulling over the mysteries of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a key development, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, on Wednesday announced that an independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic will be held next year. Informing about the inquiry, Johnson told the lawmakers they will be given wide-ranging statutory powers to conduct the same in an efficient way so that the government learns lessons from the details.

"This process will place the State's actions under the microscope," Johnson told the Parliament.  

It is pertinent to mention here that families of those who have died during the pandemic had been calling on Johnson to call an inquiry since last summer, but the Prime Minister has consistently been shrugging it off saying that the time wasn't right. Now, he has finally made the announcement and has assured that the inquiry will start by next spring. Johnson, who had been accused by the opponents of reacting slowly to the crisis, especially at the time of onset, failing to supply sufficient protective equipment and bungling the testing system, opined that by Spring 2022, these accusations would die down, and there would be an unbiased inquiry. 

It is pertinent to mention here that as per sources, the UK has reported 44,39,691 COVID infections. As far as the death toll is concerned, it stands at 1,27,629, which is Europe's highest virus-related death toll. 

Panel report on the response of WHO to COVID-19

On the global front, a panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organization's (WHO) response to the Coronavirus pandemic criticized countries for their lethargic response to COVID-19 while stating that the countries waited to take action against the pandemic until it was too late to control the surge of COVID-19. The panel also criticized the global leadership and the restrictive nature of powers with WHO to respond to the pandemic, which 'hindered' the functioning of the WHO.

Having said that, the panel asserted that the world health body should be granted guaranteed access rights in countries across the world to probe the emerging outbreaks of viruses and diseases. However, whether the member countries would support this idea or not is a bone of contention.

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