As the UK’s independent public inquiry into Covid-19 gets underway, members of the Covid bereaved complain that they are not being given an opportunity to testify. Today, in the second part of our two-part special, Mark speaks to the parents of Susan Sullivan, a woman with Down's Syndrome who died of Covid-19 at Barnet General Hospital on March 28, 2020, after being deemed “not for resuscitation” and he reveals the findings of a confidential investigation by the Royal Free NHS Hospital Trust into her death. The report, which makes for shocking reading, found that Susan was not seen by a consul ..read more

As sure as night follows day, we will face another pandemic, so how can we learn from the mistakes made during Covid-19, to ensure our response next time is not only more effective, but also more ethical? Today Mark and his guests Ilina Singh, James Wilson and John Prideaux dissect the British Government’s approach during the Covid-19 pandemic and explore the failure to engage seriously with the ethical challenges the pandemic raised, comparing the British approach with those in the USA and China. And they debate how ethicists and ethical thinking could play a more central role in deciding how ..read more

From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the British Government made it clear that a baseline level of mortality from Covid was being “priced in” to its decision making: on March 12th 2020, Boris Johnson stopped short of ordering the sort of lockdowns seen in other countries and warned that, “many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.” This approach belied a series of value judgements and trade-offs where people’s lives were set against other values, such as personal liberty and the economy. Today Mark and his guests Anjana Ahuja, Martin McKee and Dominic Wilkinson, re ..read more

Professor Sir Michael Marmot has been researching health inequalities and their relationship to social injustice for more than 50 years. He has long been a vocal critic of how health inequalities undermine social cohesion and the ability of health systems to respond effectively to pandemics and other health emergencies. Despite being an outspoken critic of austerity and the policies of successive Coalition and Conservative British governments, he was named a Companion of Honour in the 2023 New Year Honour’s List. Today Prof Sir Michael Marmot speaks to Mark about Covid-19 and health inequ ..read more

When Covid-19 first struck the UK, the disease was described as “a great leveller”. But it soon became clear that Covid's impacts were not evenly distributed - we may have been in the same storm, but we were in different boats.  Today Mark and his guests Charlotte Augst, Halima Begum and Beth Kamunge-Kpodo discuss unequal outcomes during the Covid-19. With Professor Sir Michael Marmot and Pastor Mick Fleming. Produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With: Dr. Charlotte Augst Former Chief Executive of National Voices, a coa ..read more

Mark visits the Science Museum in London to look at their Collecting Covid-19 objects and talk to Natasha McEnroe, the museum’s Keeper of Medicine, about their curatorial choices. The collection currently comprises over 400 items relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, including some major works of art. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With: Natasha McEnroe, Keep of Medicine at Science Museum London @natashamcenroe https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/project/collecting-covid-19/ Roxanna Halls on her painting of Katie Tomkins, Mortuary and Post-Mortem Services Manager at West Herts Hospitals ..read more

One of the most important functions of journalism is to bear witness to historic events. But in the case of the coronavirus pandemic, some of the most unflinching witnesses to the crisis that engulfed the NHS in 2020-2021 were doctors and frontline health workers. In this episode, the Oxford-based palliative care doctor, Rachel Clarke, recalls her experience of the first wave of Covid-19 as it ripped through the wards of her local hospital and emphasises the importance of holding the government to account for the UK’s coronavirus death toll. Recorded at the Department of Journalism at City, Un ..read more

Pandemics don’t tend to register in collective memory and there are almost no memorials to the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, but Covid-19 looks set to be different.  Today Mark and Hannah visit the ‘National Covid Memorial Wall’ on the South Bank of the Thames in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament.  Stretching 500 metres along Albert Embankment, the wall is an audacious work of guerrilla art, comprising of 150,000 hand-drawn hearts – one for every British victim of the coronavirus.  To find out more, Mark speaks to the founders of the group ‘Covid-19 Bereaved Families for ..read more

In this special episode, supported by the Department of Journalism at City, University of London, Mark speaks to three UK-based health and science reporters about the highs and lows of covering the Covid-19 pandemic: Sarah Boseley, The Guardian’s Health Editor; Victoria Macdonald, Health and Social Care Editor at Channel 4 News and Shaun Lintern, the Independent’s Health Correspondent.  What’s it been like being on the front line of the story of the century?  And looking back, what do they wish they had known earlier or done differently? Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Sar ..read more

Today Mark explores the discovery of the first vaccine, against Smallpox in 1796, by the English country doctor Edward Jenner.  With Owen Gower, General Manager of Dr. Jenner’s House Museum.  Meanwhile, Melissa catches up with Mark’s progress in the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine trial, the very latest in vaccine science.  From Smallpox to Covid-19: this is the house that Jenner built. Hosted by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum With Owen Gower, General Manager, Dr. Jenner’s House, Museum and Garden, The home of vaccination. @owentg jennermuseum.com / @DrJennersHouse Series Producer: M ..read more