UK’s Johnson backs public inquiry into handling of pandemic

Activist groups and the political opposition welcome the move, which they argue should have been made sooner.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that an independent public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic will be held next year. He told politicians on Wednesday that the inquiry will have wide-ranging statutory powers and that the government has a responsibility to learn lessons from the pandemic after more than 127,500 people died as a result of the coronavirus, Europe’s highest death toll. “Our country, like every country, has found itself in the teeth of the gravest pandemic for a century, imposing heart-breaking sorrow on families across the world,” he said.