This week, the Covid Inquiry began. Harriet, 20, a student & councillor from East London, lost her Grandad, Colin, to COVID-19. Since this bereavement, she's been fighting tirelessly for justice. Here, she tells GLAMOUR what she hopes the Covid Inquiry will achieve.
Coming from a vulnerable family, the pandemic was always terrifying and brought a lot of anxiety and fear to those around me. I spent a lot of time growing up with my Grandad, Colin, who was always full of life. He was always optimistic and a people person - he loved being around those who loved him - so the isolation he faced during COVID-19 devastated us all. When Coronavirus
restrictions meant that my Grandad passed away, in hospital, alone, we were devastated. For a man that was so extroverted and outgoing, passing away alone was not the situation any of us wanted. This was especially hard for my Nanny; who was battling the virus at home, alone and couldn't even visit my grandad due the risk of spreading the virus.
I joined the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice, a campaign group holding the UK government to account, as an outlet to understand the loss of my Grandad. I didn't know how to deal with the grief, especially when it was impacted by something that nobody knew much about. The Bereaved Families campaign Group started on Facebook as a way for the bereaved to connect and share their experiences - it proved particularly important in dealing with grief through the lockdowns and through restrictions - when there were no face to face connections.
I felt the government let my Grandad down from the beginning, for a man in his 80s, even of good health, to have not received any notification to shield and protect himself during the pandemic was the starting point for the disaster that hit our family.
When I first got a temperature in March 2020, I had no idea that my life may never be the same again.
My Grandad passed away on 8th December 2020, at a time where the government gave mixed messages about which areas were in lockdown tiers. They [the government] were not protecting the elderly to the extent that they could have. I had COVID at the time of his funeral, so could not find any closure at this point.
It was bittersweet that the day my Grandad died was also the day that the 1st vaccination was administered in the UK; it hurt us that he was potentially days away from being protected from the very thing that hospitalised him. A year later, we found out (on the day of his anniversary) that the government had partied throughout the pandemic (now known as Partygate). Three of these parties occurred in the same week my Grandad passed with COVID-19.
The COVID Inquiry, which started on Tuesday 13th June, is the only way I can give my Grandad the voice he deserves. He was a man that fought everyone else's battles and I felt that he deserved someone to fight his. The Inquiry is going to highlight the bits that everyone and the government got wrong. I hope that the Inquiry will help me prove that there are faces and people behind the death figures we are given, and prove that we could have done so much more to prevent so many losses of life throughout the pandemic. In turn I hope that this highlights the things that we can learn, and help to protect other people and their families in the future - so these tragedies do not happen again and more people do not have to lose loved ones this way.
Myself and the other Bereaved Families want the Inquiry to give those who have lost loved ones a voice about their experiences and ensure that history doesn't repeat itself, it is about getting justice and closure for losing our loved ones in ways we all were not prepared for nor grieving over. The Inquiry will hopefully give us the closure that the Campaign and the hundreds of thousands of families that have experienced these losses need - in order to ‘learn lessons and save lives’ or to remember those who we dearly miss.
At the moment, the Inquiry that we tirelessly campaigned for isn't giving those who are bereaved the voices we deserve. Only one of our 6,500 members has been called up as a witness, despite us putting forward 20 people who we all thought were most relevant for this part of the inquiry (looking at preparation for the pandemic) but all of them were rejected. In the Grenfell, Manchester Arena and Hillsborough inquiries many bereaved families were called up as witnesses and in each case the judges said it was hugely important to have done so.
It's been greatly disappointing but far worse, it means crucial lessons could be lost which could cost lives in the future. Tragically, families like mine are the experts on what went wrong in the pandemic and that's why it's so important that the inquiry listens to us directly.
In the long run we want to be optimistic that the Inquiry - like any Inquiry - will highlight the mistakes and shortcomings of the response to COVID in the UK, but at the moment this isn’t really going our way. Bereaved Families, who are at the heart of the impact of this issue, have not been given the platform we need to ensure that we are heard. Justice for me and the other families is to be heard; without our voices these tragedies will take their toll and leave others in our shoes. We are on the path to closure and understanding of our circumstances.
For information and advice related to Covid-19, visit NHS.uk, the World Health Organization's website, or speak to your GP.
