Behind the Masks: Corruption red flags in COVID-19 public procurement

The COVID-19 pandemic required an unprecedented public health response, compelling UK authorities to act with unparalleled speed. In the hurry, many standard procurement safeguards, such as competition and due diligence, were skipped to expedite the process
Behind the Masks is the most comprehensive analysis to date of public procurement and contracts issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing publicly available data on over 5,000 UK contracts, alongside official reports, litigation in the courts, and public interest journalism, we identified 135 high-risk contracts worth £15.3 billion. These contracts, which represent nearly one in every three pounds spent, raise serious concerns and warrant further investigation by relevant authorities.
Our research attributes these failings to the widespread and often unjustifiable suspension of procurement checks and safeguards, costing billions to the public purse, and eroding trust in political institutions. As the UK prepares itself for future crises, which are increasingly likely to occur within our lifetimes, this report provides valuable insights to help further investigations into what went wrong, as well as into mistakes that were made during the COVID-19 response.
The UK government should urgently act on the lessons learnt to prevent further harm.https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/behind-masks-corruption-red-flags-covid-19-public-procurement

Inquiry Module Reports

Module 1 – Resilience and preparedness

The Inquiry published its first report and recommendations following its investigation into the UK’s ‘Resilience and preparedness (Module 1)’ on Thursday 18 July 2024.

It examines the state of the UK’s central structures and procedures for pandemic emergency preparedness, resilience and response.

https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/

DIGITAL CONTACT tracing FOR SARS-cov-2
In March 2020 we published a proposal to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) by doing contact tracing digitally: using proximity-detecting mobile phone apps. Since then we—a group of scientists at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, mainly led by Professor Christophe Fraser—have published a variety of studies investigating this novel public health investigation further. This website provides links and summaries for our work.
Tabs at the top navigate between pages about specific topics.

https://045.medsci.ox.ac.uk/

"figure shows daily analysis of the relative contributions of different "settings" for epidemic spread, April 2021 - March 2022.
 
Upper = types of contact for the average person with COVID-19,
lower = COVID-19 transmissions detected by the app"
this  from X's @mishkendall

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Household contacts (more than 8 hours per day) accounted for only 6% of contacts but 39% of transmission events,
whereas fleeting interactions (less than half an hour) accounted for 48% of contacts but only 12% of transmission events.

The repeating wave patterns show how types of contact vary by day of the week. No prizes for spotting Christmas day!"

see her Blog https://michellekendall.github.io/blog/

Every Story Matters events are a way of sharing your story with the UK Covid Inquiry in person. Some of these events are targeted for specific groups of people affected by the pandemic, while others are open to the general public. or share your story online

see https://www.covid19.public-inquiry.uk/every-story-matters/