| Notes |
"The new All-Party Parliamentary Group Pandemic Response and Recovery, which will be co-chaired by Rt Hon Esther McVey MP and Graham Stringer MP, held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday 8 September.
MPs on the Group include Conservatives Sir Charles Walker and Sir Graham Brady, Labour’s Derek Twigg and Emma Lewell-Buck, the Democratic Unionist Party’s Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley. Peers on the group include Independent Baroness Fox of Buckley and Conservative Baroness Foster of Oxton, DBE.
The Group’s objectives will be to provide an open forum for politicians, scientists, economists, business leaders, health professionals and other experts; to facilitate broad, balanced and open discussion; to inform a more focussed and flexible approach to government policy; to reach for new solutions in pandemic management which prevent avoidable suffering and loss in the future.
The APPG will also examine evidence from scientists, health professionals, individuals and organisations from both sides of the debate. Addressing members at the inaugural meeting, Professor Robert Dingwall and Dr John Lee urged a fresh approach to policy making.
Professor Dingwall commented: “Every policy measure to mitigate the pandemic has come with costs. We must test any ongoing measures, especially non-pharmaceutical interventions, against what we once thought necessary and assess the genuine risks. It is time also, to foster wider public debate that broadens the government’s scientific advice network to involve a whole-of-science approach.
“A good society is defined by life, health, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not by the prevention of one disease alone.”
Dr John Lee commented: “Preventing COVID-19 has become all consuming and has been pursued at a huge cost to society, which many predicted. We cannot continue to make policy based on the worst case scenario. We must set calm, reasonable thresholds for any future measures based on proper assessment using real world data and evidence.
“It is also time to start asking serious questions. Who is in charge of running the country, scientific advisers or government? What are their conflicts of interests?”
Esther McVey MP, Co-Chair of the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG, said of the Group: “We are very pleased to launch the All-Party Parliamentary Group Pandemic Response and Recovery and we welcomed the informative contributions from Professor Dingwall and Dr Lee at our inaugural meeting.
“The Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG will look holistically at the government’s pandemic policy in a broad, open and balanced way. The impact pandemic policy has had, and continues to have, on society is devastating.
“Increasing the breadth of engagement is now vital and we must look at how we can recover and achieve a positive endpoint to the current measures and interventions.
“The Group will seek to understand where policy may have gone wrong and recommend a more pragmatic and real-world evidenced approach to prevent the suffering and loss that so many are still experiencing. We must recognise too, when it is policy that is responsible, not the disease.”
Graham Stringer MP, Co-Chair of the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG. commented: “There has been considerable concern among many MPs and peers, myself included, about the one-sided nature of the scientific debate, which has given rise to policies that have dramatically affected the lives of constituents up and down the country.
“We must ask, did the government and its scientific advisors implement public health measures that were proportionate to the risk?
“I hope that the Pandemic Response and Recovery APPG will allow and encourage a forum in which all voices will come forward and be heard. So much of the science is not settled. We look forward to hearing from a wide range of groups and individuals, scientists, health professionals, business leaders, members of the public and organisations, to inform the Group’s recommendations on future pandemic policy.”" |