Foreword
Updated 10 January 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technical-report-on-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-the-uk/foreword
COVID-19 has been the most challenging pandemic for the UK since the influenza pandemic of 1918 to 1919, and the most important pandemic globally since HIV. There has been extensive and tragic loss of life and health, and substantial social and economic disruption. This has been the case in all 4 nations of the UK and internationally, and will have many long-term consequences.
This report on COVID-19 has a specific and narrow audience: future UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), Government Chief Scientific Advisers (GCSAs), National Medical Directors and UK public health leaders facing a new pandemic or major epidemic. This is not a narrative of the pandemic or an exploration of the decisions made. That will be the subject of extensive public inquiries which, when finished, we anticipate will be the authoritative account. Rather, it covers some technical aspects of interest primarily to our scientific, public health and clinical successors.
We would like to thank the authors and reviewers who wrote and revised sections of this report, in particular Polly Ashmore who brought much of it together.
We pay profound tribute to the many clinical, scientific, and public health professionals who responded again and again as COVID-19 waves hit. Their efforts saved lives, helped to improve understanding of the virus and the disease, and helped to develop the best available responses (both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical). Often this was done at significant personal risk. Some of the scale of this work may be apparent from this report – it was a massive national and international clinical and scientific effort. We are very grateful to international colleagues who have shared their experience and insights throughout the pandemic.
Above all we thank the UK public in all 4 nations who, to protect their fellow citizens, responded collectively over a prolonged period to this major public health challenge, often incurring great difficulties by doing so. Even with this there were many thousands of deaths and people left disabled directly or indirectly due to COVID-19, each one a tragedy. If the public had not responded so altruistically the outcomes would have been significantly worse.