The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday October 24 2023 #CovidInquiry
The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday October 24 2023 #CovidInquiry
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00:00 [Music]
00:06 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Tuesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:11 Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today on the day the COVID inquiry kicks off
00:16 in Scotland by our health correspondent Joseph Anderson. Hi Joseph.
00:20 Morning Alan, how are you?
00:22 Good, let's have a quick look at the front page today and we continue to read on the storm aftermath today.
00:33 Humza Yousaf yesterday visiting Brechin as you can see there, pledging support for flood defences and for the families who have been left out of their homes.
00:45 It came as the body was discovered in a hunt for a driver in Mericirk in Aberdeenshire.
00:52 That brings the death toll in Scotland to three.
00:57 We also have at the top of the page there a look ahead to the new series of Shetland.
01:03 Our arts correspondent Brian Ferguson has been speaking to the two stars ahead of that kicking off.
01:10 But Joseph, the main event today is this long awaited public inquiry beginning into COVID-19 in Scotland.
01:23 Before I speak to you about the inquiry, I think we can hear from some of the families who have been speaking outside.
01:29 My son Callum tested positive for COVID-19 while serving a short term in Addywell Prison, West Lothian.
01:39 Callum was unvaccinated and was asthmatic.
01:43 Within the next 12 days Callum's health would deteriorate rapidly.
01:48 Throughout this entire period he was not seen by a nurse.
01:52 He reported being breathless and coughing up significant amounts of blood.
01:57 In the last four days of his life he repeatedly requested medical attention via the cell intercom
02:05 to be promised by the prison officers that someone will see him in the morning but nobody ever came.
02:12 On the 24th of October 2021, two years to date, my son was found.
02:21 [Sigh]
02:23 Unresponsive in the cell.
02:30 He died alone, without help, without dignity.
02:44 The Scottish COVID inquiry must find out which protocols the prison were following at this time.
02:50 Protocols that would allow such barbaric behaviour to take place.
02:55 And to examine the staff work culture within that prison where staff must have known how ill my son was yet did nothing.
03:05 I am looking for accountability and looking to this inquiry to deliver on that.
03:13 I ask Margaret Waterton to speak next. She lost her husband David, followed by her mother Margaret.
03:20 Thank you very much.
03:22 COVID has been absolutely devastating for me and my family.
03:26 And every man, woman and child in Scotland has felt the impact of COVID.
03:31 The inquiry, this is a landmark day for Scottish COVID bereaved, for the people of Scotland.
03:38 We are looking now for the inquiry to deliver for us truth, justice, accountability,
03:46 so that the decision makers can learn from our lived experience the impact that their decisions or lack of decision making had upon us.
03:55 Clearly a very emotional day all round.
04:01 Joseph, just go through some of the backgrounds, how we got here and what the Scottish inquiry is going to be looking at.
04:09 Well, as you know, there's two inquiries. There's the UK COVID inquiry and there's the Scottish COVID inquiry.
04:15 Obviously, each inquiry will focus on the decisions made by each government.
04:20 The Scottish COVID inquiry by its nature will be slightly limited in scope.
04:25 It can't talk about the vaccine procurement, for example, it can't talk about how to help out those sorts of things.
04:32 But what it will do is it will give people, like the gentleman we just heard from,
04:38 the opportunity to hear some of the decision making processes that went into some of the incredibly emotional and hard decisions that they had to to endure.
04:49 Why was I not allowed to see my family? Why was I not allowed to say goodbye to my mother?
04:56 Why did my family members be so secluded from me, especially at these incredibly horrible times when people were dying?
05:05 And I think what we found with the UK COVID inquiry was that the decision making there was a bit of a mess.
05:12 It was ad hoc, it was informal, it was done by WhatsApp a lot and those messages have now been deleted for the UK government.
05:23 I think Scottish government will be slightly different from that, but it will be very interesting to see what were the main considerations they were taking.
05:31 And sort of gives people a chance to think, if you were put in that exact same position and you had to weigh up X amount of people dying
05:39 and the emotional complications, emotional toll that it takes on people, which decision would you make and why?
05:48 It won't be black and white, there will be lots of shades of grey.
05:54 Obviously this inquiry is going to run for a long time.
05:59 We're hearing from the families at the outset of it today, along with an initial statement from the Scottish government.
06:07 We do expect high profile politicians to appear before it as well and there will be a focus surely on the relationship between the Scottish government and Westminster.
06:20 Yeah, well, having already appeared at the UK COVID inquiry, we'll certainly hear from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
06:30 And the relationship with the UK government will form an enormous part of that.
06:37 Why did Scotland's COVID response have to be so different to the rest of the UK when we are essentially living on the same island and travel between the two countries is constant?
06:49 I think the shutting of the border will be something that will be politically sensitive and something that will, the decision making behind that will certainly form a large part of the inquiry.
07:03 Thanks very much for that. Joseph goes without saying, we'll have all the very latest from the inquiry and analysis around what we've heard at scotsman.com throughout the day.
07:16 If you are on the site, please do subscribe if you can, and then you will not miss a thing.
07:20 And if you are out and about today, as ever, do pick up a paper from me and from Joseph.
07:26 It's bye for now.
07:28 Oh,
07:30 Oh,
07:31 (upbeat music)
07:33 [MUSIC]