\n<\/p>\n
The final module in the long-running Covid-19 inquiry has concluded, marking the end of public hearings that began almost three years ago.<\/p>\n
While other sections of the inquiry have focused on specific areas of the pandemic, such as the care sector, economy, vaccines and political decision-making, module 10 had a broader remit, looking at the overall impact on society and the legacy left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis module is about making a permanent record of the impact of Covid-19, lest people forget, and about recommending improvements for the future,\u201d said Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, at its outset.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the key things we learned:<\/p>\n
Experts talked of how demand for mental health services soared overnight when the lockdown hit, with people who had never previously experienced problems contacting charities such as Mind in huge distress after statutory services closed. Reports of suicide ideation, self-harm, eating disorders and compulsive behaviours all increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most astonishing factors we saw, especially with children and young people, was the impact of the rolling news, the constant noise about what was happening, that sense of crisis and emergency,\u201d said Dr Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time there was an announcement by a minister, all of the helplines would experience a significant spike in contact with people who were deeply anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes added that its legacy was still being felt today \u2013 people\u2019s inability to grieve or hold proper funerals for their loved ones during the pandemic had led to complex grief and post-traumatic stress disorder that \u201cwe still as a nation are not really understanding\u201d.<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard how key workers across many sectors of society felt ignored and undervalued for their contributions during the pandemic, and that many experienced high levels of abuse and intimidation as they tried to enforce social distancing rules.<\/p>\n
John Leach, assistant general secretary of the RMT union, which represents transport workers, said verbal and physical abuse was \u201cexacerbated\u201d by the pressures of Covid, and this had continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt normalised itself. People were threatened with being spat at on a very regular basis. Bus staff, station staff, train drivers, cleaners, maintenance workers \u2013 they became fair game, and it continues to this day, I\u2019m afraid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The case of Belly Mujinga, a 47-year-old railway ticket office worker who died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty caused outrage in the early months of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Joanne Thomas, general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said workers felt \u201cvery regularly dehumanised, and that\u2019s an awful feeling when you\u2019re trying to do the best for society\u201d.<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard how the pandemic had a significant impact on housing and homelessness, particularly through the Everyone In initiative, in which councils were asked to house everyone at risk of sleeping rough, often in then empty hotels.<\/p>\n
The long-term consequence of the policy is that housing people in hotels and B&Bs as emergency accommodation has become normalised.<\/p>\n
St Mungo\u2019s said the pandemic \u201cnormalised temporary accommodation that we\u2019ve never got away from. It increased during Covid-19 and I don\u2019t think we think of that as a short-term blip, it\u2019s the new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelter said people were \u201chaving terrible mental health crises\u201d in hotels with skeleton staff. \u201cHotel staff were dealing with people who wanted to take their own life, having severe reactions because they couldn\u2019t obtain drugs or alcohol, and they were completely untrained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts urged that the housing and homelessness sector should be incorporated in emergency planning for future pandemics or national emergencies to prevent similar mistakes.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said the combination of social care services \u201cdisappearing overnight\u201d and the atmosphere of fear created by the virus, meant people with disabilities \u2013 who were more vulnerable to Covid \u2013 were \u201cin a vacuum\u201d without support.<\/p>\n
Lara Wong, from Clinically Vulnerable Families, said that \u201cextended shielding, repeated disruption to healthcare and prolonged exclusion from everyday activities meant risk management became a constant feature of daily life\u201d.<\/p>\n
Experts said that as restrictions were lifted, disabled people struggled to return to their normal routine, and the loss of trust has continued. \u201cWe found people were very frightened of going out, of non-masked people infecting them, of going to healthcare facilities,\u201d said Prof Nick Watson, chair of disability studies at the University of Glasgow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people see messages that there are deaths, but \u2018it\u2019s OK; they had underlying conditions\u2019, they feel devalued.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson also told of an incident where a young woman with a learning disability had become so anxious that she washed herself every day with bleach and ended up in hospital with scars. \u201cThis is the result of high anxiety building up and nobody to talk to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The final module in the long-running Covid-19 inquiry has concluded, marking the end of public hearings that began almost three years ago. While other sections of the inquiry have focused on specific areas of the pandemic, such as the care sector, economy, vaccines and political decision-making, module 10 had a broader remit, looking at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1442,7856,5333,9108,23542,788,7379,4669],"class_list":{"0":"post-45851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-changed","9":"tag-coronavirus","10":"tag-covid","11":"tag-findings","12":"tag-inquirys","13":"tag-key","14":"tag-normal","15":"tag-society"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}