‘Eat out to help out’ scheme may have broken the law and cost lives, Covid survivors say

Relatives who have lost loved ones during the pandemic believe Rishi Sunak may have broken the law with his Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

The plan will be considered at the official inquiry into the Covid pandemic when the Prime Minister appears on Monday. Treasury policy was aimed at stimulating the economy in August 2020, when Sunak was Chancellor. However, studies have shown that the coronavirus spread faster in areas with many participating restaurants, and that the number of infections in those areas dropped after the plan ended.

said Fiona Kirton, from Glastonbury, Somerset, who has been campaigning for Covid survivors. I: “My main question to Rishi Sunak is: “Can you seek the scientific advice you sought before launching the Eat Out to Help Out programme?”

“I would like him to set out the risk assessment he carried out in relation to the rights of people protected by the Equality Act, particularly older people, clinically vulnerable people, people with disabilities and people from minority ethnic groups who were then known to be due to Covid One is at additional risk. Unless he can prove this, I consider the policy to be in breach of the Equality Act.”

The government risks legal action from relatives if the policy is found to be illegal. Ms Kirton lost her father Bernard Kirton to Covid in April 2020, before the Treasury policy was introduced, and has been involved in campaigning for justice for bereaved families.

Asked what impact she thought the Eating Out to Help Out program had on public health, Ms Kirton said: “I think the program has exponentially increased the number of Covid cases and caused people to die. especially in vulnerable groups who would not have died if the plan had not died. brought it to life.”

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s former chief scientific adviser, has already told the inquiry that Sunak was likely to know the plan would spread Covid infections. Sir Patrick also told the inquiry last month that the plan was “very likely” to have led to more Covid deaths.

In a written statement previously given to the inquiry, Mr Sunak said he recalled that “no concerns were raised during ministerial discussions about the plan” while the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was in place.

But critics of the plan say it is because the government’s top scientists were not consulted about the plan, which in August 2020 partially subsidized restaurant prices to encourage people to spend more money in the hospitality sector.

Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, is said to have privately described the plan to boost the restaurant industry as “eating out to help the virus”.

Mr Sunak was called “Doctor”. Death,” and soon after the plan was launched, the WhatsApp messages were already handed over to the investigation.

Barbara Herbert, a spokeswoman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: “Rishi Sunak needs to answer extremely serious questions about eating out to help.” going to bars and restaurants is also true.

“Instead, we learned that the Eat Out to Help Out program goes against all scientific advice and, according to Patrick Vallance, is “very likely to increase the number of deaths.” How many people would “eat out” if they knew Chris Whitty was calling the plan “eating out to help the virus”?

“EOTHO spread the infection in August, meaning we were faced with a ‘second wave’ in the middle of winter when the NHS was at its most vulnerable and the vaccine had not yet been properly rolled out. In January, over a thousand people were dying every day and we had to stay in lockdown for months to save the situation, which meant that in the long run the plan actually caused huge damage to the economy and also caused so many unnecessary deaths.

“If we know Sunak misled us at a terrible cost during the last pandemic, how can we trust that he will get it right in the event of another pandemic?”