Debates between Lord Dobbs and Lord Allan of Hallam during the 2019-2024 Parliament

Tue 25th Apr 2023

Long Covid

Debate between Lord Dobbs and Lord Allan of Hallam
Tuesday 25th April 2023

(1 year, 7 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Dobbs Portrait Lord Dobbs (Con)
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It is this side. Thank you for giving way; I appreciate it. So far, 223,738 people have died from Covid and it has cost this country between £310 billion and £410 billion. Last month, in a Written Question, I asked the Government what they thought were the origins of Covid. The Answer that came back, which was not a reply at all, was that they fully supported the World Health Organization’s study into its origins. But that is an organisation that once speculated that Covid might have come into China on a package of frozen food. The World Health Organization has achieved very little since, and Nature magazine has just revealed that it has “quietly shelved” its second scientific investigation into Covid’s origins. Why do the Government appear so uninterested in the origins of a disease that has cost us so much? Why did it happen, where is it going and how are we going to prevent a second epidemic causing the same sort of chaos that came from Covid?