Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor

The two new witnesses were asked by the inquiry to consider pandemic preparedness and other resilience measures in their report.

They were asked what they thought the government view on future disease outbreaks was now?

Bruce Mann said a review of government security in 2021 included an assumption that there would be more infectious disease outbreaks by 2030 and another novel pandemic was a realistic possibility.

Professor Alexander said a novel pandemic was an "inevitability".

Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor

Time for new witnesses – Professor David Alexander on video link and sworn in remotely. Bruce Mann present in person. They have done a 321-page report for the inquiry.

David Alexander is Professor in the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London.

Bruce Mann was a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office from 1979 to 2016 and a former director of civil contingencies secretariat.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

With her final set of questions, council for the inquiry Kate Blackwell KC asked Prof Heymann to clarify some earlier comments he made about mask wearing.

He was asked why the WHO did not advise the widespread use of face coverings earlier in the pandemic, given its experience of the earlier Sars and Mers outbreaks.

He said evidence showed the main reason to use a mask was to prevent others being infected rather than to protect the person wearing it.

He suggested it was easier to encourage that practice in some Asia countries where masks were routinely worn as a courtesy.

He said one major downside of encouraging widespread mask use was that there was a shortage of supply at the start of the pandemic.

If the public as well as the health community had been “trying to get hold them” at the same time, he said it could have caused a "serious problem".

"There was concern, including I think at the WHO, that it would compound the shortage that was occurring," he told the inquiry.

If you're just joining us or need a recap, we're following the "module" of the UK's Covid inquiry. This phase is looking at how well prepared the UK was for the pandemic.

This morning we've been hearing from Prof David Heymann, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is also a former chairman of Public Health England and had key roles at the World Health Organization, including heading the global response to the Sars outbreak.

He told the inquiry:

• There are two major theories of the origins of Covid but he did not have the evidence to say which is more likely
• The outbreak of Sars had a "profound effect" in many Asian countries when it came to dealing with Covid
• Some had established isolation wards with hundreds of beds, developed surge capacity in medical facilities and trained their health workers in contact tracing
• He says he believes Japan, South Korea - which was affected by Mers - Taiwan and Singapore were more successful than other countries in containing the early spread of Covid in 2020, noting "much, much lower" mortality rates
• Asked to outline recommendations for the future, Prof Heymann added to calls for the UK to rejoin the EU’s EUR 95bn Horizon programme, which promotes scientific research

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Asked to outline recommendations for the future, Prof Heymann adds to calls for the UK to rejoin the EU’s EUR 95bn Horizon programme, which promotes scientific research.

British membership of the programme was frozen because of a dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol.

PM Rishi Sunak had pledged to sign the UK up again but there have been reports he is considering a cut-down version.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

There are fascinating exchanges now between counsel for the inquiry Kate Blackwell KC and Professor Heymann, who in his time at the WHO was one of the officials leading the response against the Sars epidemic in 2003.

He said he believed that outbreak - which affected many Asian countries - had a "profound effect" when it then came to dealing with Covid.

"I visited those countries after Sars [and before Covid] and some had established isolation wards with hundreds of beds. They had developed a surge capacity, they had trained their health workers in contact tracing," he said.

Image source, Covid inquiry

He described how early in the Covid outbreak countries like Japan were able to more effectively trace contacts back to the source of infection and could then put in place a "precision lockdown" around the source.

He gave the example of an outbreak around a church in South Korea where the health authorities were able to stop a major outbreak through detailed contact tracing.

South Korea was not badly affected by Sars in 2003 but it did have to deal with a significant outbreak of another virus - Mers - in 2015.

Prof Heymann said this approach "permitted" countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore to "let the virus enter at a much lower rate".

Asked if those countries were more successful in containing the early spread of Covid in 2020, he replied: "It’s my view that they were, and you will see now that their mortality rates were much, much lower [as a result]."

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, Covid inquiry

Prof Heymann now being asked technical questions about SARS-CoV-2 – the form of coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China which causes the Covid illness.

In his report for the inquiry he says – in a highly vaccinated population – it's now thought that around one third of those infected will not display signs or symptoms of the disease.

This is one of the key differences between Covid and the earlier Sars outbreak in 2003 that we heard about at the start of today’s evidence.

With Sars, Mers and most (though not all) types of influenza you generally have to be sick with the illness before you can easily pass it on to someone else.

Prof Heymann was also asked about comorbidities – that's when a patient has more than one disease or condition at the same time.

He was asked by Kate Blackwell KC, counsel to the inquiry, why obesity might have increased the risk of severe Covid and death in adults.

He replied that there was probably a physical component, as people who are heavily overweight may struggle with their breathing anyway.

He also highlighted the risk of type two diabetes, saying the evidence shows that may damage the way the immune system can fight off an infection.

Image source, Covid-19 Inquiry handout

The short answer is for a number of years. The inquiry has no actual formal deadline but is due to hold public hearings until 2026.

Its work is split into six parts with the first looking at resilience, preparedness, core UK decision-making, political governance and the impact of Covid on the NHS.

Then, with hearings in 2024 and 2025, the inquiry will look at the UK care sector, vaccines, anti-viral treatment and government procurement.

Public hearings will be held in all four UK nations. it is worth noting Scotland has announced it will hold a separate inquiry.

The current phase, or module, is focused on how prepared the UK was for the pandemic.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

At the opening of this inquiry, it was made very clear it would not be looking at the question of where Covid came from – only on its impact on the UK once it had spread.

All the same Prof Heymann - who is the former assistant director-general for health security at the World Health Organization (WHO) - was just asked that specific question.

He said there are two major theories – that it spread from an animal like a bat to an intermediary animal to humans. Or that it spread in a laboratory accident potentially after experiments on the virus had made it more transmissible.

Kate Blackwell KC, counsel to the inquiry, pressed him on what hypothesis he found more persuasive. He said he was unable to say because he simply did not have the evidence.

Questioning is now moving on to the spread of Covid internationally after it was first detected in Wuhan, China.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Prof Heymann is now talking in detail about the difference between the outbreak of two other diseases – Sars and Mers – which both had little impact on the UK and Covid.

Sars, also caused by a coronavirus, started in China in 2003 and spread to "22 or 23" countries before it could be controlled.

It had a case fatality rate of around 10% - so 1 in 10 people who tested positive later died of the disease.

Mers was first detected in 2012 after crossing the species barrier from camels to humans with large outbreaks in South Korea in 2015 and Saudi Arabia in 2018.

Prof Heymann is being asked to compare how the three different illnesses are transmitted.

He said Sars was often transmitted in healthcare settings where adult patients were undergoing procedures. Unlike Covid it was not highly transmissible until two or three days after symptoms develop.

After it emerged, it was contained "fairly rapidly" and we can now say it has been eradicated from human population, Prof Heymann said.

Hugh Pym
Health Editor, BBC News

Any thoughts of a slow burn for the UK Covid-19 public inquiry can be dismissed.

New week promises to be a huge one with a former prime minister and chancellor and some politicians still in the cabinet called as witnesses.

Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance will make their first appearances. The two experts are set to be called back during the next module of the inquiry in the autumn covering government decisions from January 2020 onwards.

Next week will continue to focus on the UK’s preparedness for a pandemic before the new coronavirus. Hence the appearance of David Cameron, prime minister from 2010 to 2016. He will be questioned on the extent of resilience planning during his term of office.

George Osborne, chancellor during that period, will face questions on NHS funding and resources.

Jeremy Hunt, now chancellor, was health secretary at a time when a major pandemic planning exercise was carried out focussed just on flu.

Oliver Dowden, now deputy prime minister and at the Cabinet Office over two years before the pandemic, will also be called.

With a former Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Dame Sally Davies also a witness some of the key people in heath leadership roles will be asked to explain what was going on before Covid struck.

Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News

Prof Heymann has been asked to go back to basics at the start of his evidence – describing what a coronavirus is and how it might spread in humans.

He said there are probably over 200 coronaviruses present in the animal Kingdom and they appear to be common in bats, camels and even whales.

To jump the species barrier into humans he said a series of risk factors need to line up in a certain way.

He said that could include the way animals are grouped together or intensively raised or if they were "sent to a live market" where consumers could be infected.

He’s now being asked about the emergence and spread of the first Sars virus in China in 2003 and 2004.

Prof Heymann led the WHO response to that outbreak so should be interesting to hear his answers.

Image source, Covid inquiry

Today's hearing begins, with a summary of the professor's extensive CV, and Kate Blackwell KC, counsel to the inquiry, asking about the nature of coronaviruses.

Prof David Heymann says coronaviruses easily transmits between animals; and they can jump between species but that it was a very complex issue and there should be many risk factors.

Today's hearing is beginning now, and we will hear from Prof David Heymann soon.

Prof Heymann is from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an infectious diseases expert and he was the former chairman of Public Health England.

Press play above to watch their evidence. We'll also have text updates here.

The inquiry has released the names of some of the witnesses called to appear next week - and they're big.

They include former PM David Cameron and former chancellor George Osborne. Also the current deputy PM Oliver Dowden and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance - household names during the pandemic - are also among witnesses called to the public inquiry.

The first witness today is David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

He has quite the CV.

He worked for years as the assistant director-general for health security and environment at the World Health Organization (WHO).

From 1998 to 2003 he was executive director of its communicable diseases cluster, during which he headed the global response to the Sars outbreak.

Before that he worked as a medical epidemiologist in sub-Saharan Africa, on assignment from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was involved in managing the first and second outbreaks of Ebola.

A US citizen, in 2009 he was awarded an honorary CBE for service to global public health.

In October 2020, he said to a parliamentary committee that the UK might need tolive with Covid and surgical local lockdowns , externalmight be needed in the long term, if vaccines and treatments couldn’t be developed quickly.

In January 2022, he said that the UK was “closest to any country” to exiting the pandemic because of the build-up of immunity in the population.

While we're waiting for today’s hearing to begin, here's a recap of the key developments from Wednesday:

• Fiona Scolding KC, representing the Department of Health in England, said the government would not argue it got everything right in its response to Covid and accepted that "with the benefit of hindsight" it may have made some different decisions. She described the pandemic as an "all-consuming period akin to a war"
• Matthew Hill, for the Government Office for Science, defended the role of the Sage committee of scientific experts, which advised the government. It was only because Sage documents and minutes were published transparently, he said, that the committee got so much prominence. Other advice was not subject to the same scrutiny, he said
• Prof Jimmy Whitworth said a coronavirus had infected humans on a significant scale twice in the 21st century with Sars and Mers, so it was "a reasonable bet" before 2020 that another one might get into the human population. He said it was still plausible another might come along in the future
• Dr Charlotte Hammer was asked about the dangers of a virus being leaked, either deliberately or accidentally, from a laboratory and said she was aware of four such incidents involving the Sars virus
• Andrew Kinnier KC, representing the Welsh government, said preparations for Brexit consumed the attention of governments across the UK from 2017 in a way that "couldn’t be underestimated"

Here's a quick reminder of some of the key things to know about the UK's Covid inquiry.

• It is being chaired by Baroness Hallett - a former Court of Appeal judge who previously led the inquests into the 7 July London bombings in 2005
• Witnesses will be announced each week, but we expect to hear from key politicians, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, Covid bereavement groups and more
• Members of the public are being encouraged to share their stories with the inquiry by filling in this form online, external.
• No-one will be found guilty or innocent during this inquiry
• This is about going through what happened and learning lessons
• Any recommendations made by the inquiry at the end of this process do not have to be adopted by governments

Nathan Williams
Live reporter

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the UK's Covid inquiry. Today is the third day of public hearings for the inquiry, which is in its first phase.

This phase, or module, is one of six and is examining how prepared the UK was for the pandemic.

This morning we're expecting to hear from infectious diseases expert Prof David Heymann from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is also a former chairman of Public Health England.

This afternoon we’re due to hear from Bruce Mann, a former head of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, and Prof David Alexander, an expert in risk and disaster reduction at University College London.

Stay with us for the latest news updates and analysis.

Image source, EPA