Covid inquiry's slow pace has created an information vacuum that's enabling fringe theories to flourish – Scotsman comment

The slow pace of the Covid inquiries in Scotland and the UK is yet another example of the very British tendency towards a dragging of officialdom’s heels over such weighty matters.

When an inquiry is announced, the reasonable desire to ensure that everything is done properly and evidence is thoroughly assessed combines with politicians' self-interested desires for judgment to be suspended, lest they come in for criticism, to create a process that can last years and cost countless millions.

While the Covid inquiries here have barely got off the ground, in Sweden their official investigation produced an 800-page report – last year. So, if another pandemic strikes, they will have learned the lessons from their response to Covid. Politicians here could perhaps ask for a translation, but we would clearly be better prepared if we had learned our own lessons.

Furthermore, the vacuum created by the lack of a comprehensive inquiry report has allowed a range of ill-founded views put about by those who might be described, perhaps over-politely, as enthusiastic amateurs who arrogantly assume they know better than the actual experts.

Asked why she leaked former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages about his handling of Covid to the Daily Telegraph, journalist Isabel Oakeshott said: “This is about the millions of people, every one of us in this country, that were adversely affected by the catastrophic decisions to lockdown this country repeatedly, often on the flimsiest of evidence, for political reasons.”

So she, at least, appears to have conducted her own personal inquiry and passed judgment – lockdown was a catastrophe and the real reasons for its imposition were not because of concerns about a virulent and deadly disease, but rather some hidden, obscure “political” motive. It is a view shared by significant minorities on the political right and left.

Hancock has countered the claim, based on the leaked messages, that he “rejected” expert advice to test everyone going into care homes for Covid by saying other experts told him this was not practically possible because of the capacity available at testing facilities at the time.

This seems like a reasonable defence to a charge based on a partial account, but only an expert inquiry can give the public the full picture. The sooner we are able to see it, the better.