Families who were bereaved by Covid-19, including hundreds of children, say they feel betrayed by the Covid Inquiry after having their application for core participant status denied.
At a hearing on Friday 6th September, the Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Baroness Hallett, will confirm the core participants for the Inquiry’s eighth module examining the impact of the pandemic on children and young people. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK Group says it has had its application denied.
Matt Fowler, co-founder of the group, says:
“The experiences of our members are vast. Within our group we have young children with PTSD who freeze at the sight of an ambulance or who are scared to go near a hospital because they associate it with death. We have adults trying to raise traumatised and grief-stricken young children alone, while suppressing their own grief and PTSD, right through to professionals who work with children and young adults who report worrying signs of the impact of lockdowns on those they work with.
"One of the areas that module eight is supposed to cover is the impact of the pandemic on children and young people’s physical and mental health, wellbeing, development and family lives. Ignoring the bereaved is a betrayal of trust. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Mother of two, Sarah Toni from Telford, lost her 61-year-old husband Brandon during the pandemic. She says:
“My children lost their father in March 2021 when they were just 10 and 13 years old. They had to say goodbye over FaceTime. They have night terrors from seeing their father on life support. They suffer constant anxiety, which is particularly acute when going out in public and when anyone in our family feels unwell, they particularly worry that I too will die and leave them all alone."
“There has been no closure for my children and I believe this will impact their lives forever. My children are also incredibly angry. They are now 13 and 16 and don’t trust anything the government says when they watch the news and now, they feel they have been betrayed by Baroness Hallett not wanting to hear their experience. It’s heart breaking.”
Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, represents more than 7,000 families from the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK Group. She says:
“What bigger impact on a child can there be than losing a parent or losing their own life? We represent many children who had to live with death during the pandemic, and parents who lost children and feel their dead child’s voice is being silenced by the Inquiry’s exclusion of them. Those left behind have a unique and invaluable perspective and should be heard, not ignored."