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 consultant until 20 hours after admission to Barnet’s Accident and Emergency department and that the fact that she had Down’s Syndrome and had been fitted with a pacemaker should not have excluded her from intensive care.

Mark also speaks to Kamran Mallick, the CEO of Disability Rights UK, about what the Sullivan case reveals about the pattern of discrimination experienced by people with learning disabilities across the NHS, and to Dominic Wilkinson, a medical ethicist, who explains the challenge to doctors of weighing the harms and benefits of invasive procedures to patients.

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

John and Ida Sullivan

 www.covidfamiliesforjustice.org / @CovidJusticeuk 

Kamran Mallick, CEO of Disability Rights UK.

www.disabilityrights.uk  / @KamranMallick

Professor Dominic Wilkinson

@NeonatalEthics

Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of Medical Ethics at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Dominic is also a Consultant Neonatologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College. 

www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/about-jesus-college/our-community/people/professor-dominic-wilkinson/ 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Cover art by Patrick Blower  www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com 

This episode of Going Viral has been produced with the support of a grant from the Higher Education Innovation Fund at City, University of London. It is part of the project, “Commemorating Covid, Remembering Pandemics”, www.rememberingpandemics.com

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!

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, 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 being denied access to intensive care. The Sullivans have long suspected that their daughter was the victim of medical bias and may have survived if the hospital had granted her statutory right to have a family member at her bedside. Determined to be Susan’s voice, John and Ida Sullivan launched their own investigation into Susan’s death and uncovered a catalogue of medical errors in the process. We also hear from Baroness Heather Hallet, the chair of the UK public inquiry, and from Fran Hall and other members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK.

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

Fran Hall @FranFD1

John and Ida Sullivan

 www.covidfamiliesforjustice.org / @CovidJusticeuk 

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Cover art by Patrick Blower  www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com 

This episode of Going Viral has been produced with the support of a grant from the Higher Education Innovation Fund at City, University of London. It is part of the project, “Commemorating Covid, Remembering Pandemics”,

www.rememberingpandemics.com

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!

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.

In a new two part special, Mark speaks to the parents of Susan Sullivan, a Down’s Syndrome woman who died of Covid-19 at Barnet General Hospital on March 28, 2020, after being deemed “not for resuscitation” and being denied access to intensive care. The Sullivans have long suspected that their daughter was the victim of medical bias and may have survived if the hospital had granted her statutory right to have a family member at her bedside. Determined to be Susan’s voice, John and Ida Sullivan launched their own investigation into Susan’s death and uncovered a catalogue of medical errors in the process.

Mark investigates....

...'That's Dancing Queen' and 'Who Do We Not Save' coming to Going Viral on Thursday 13th July.

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 to respond to the next pandemic. With Catherine Joynson of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

Catherine Joynson

Associate Director, Nuffield Council on Bioethics

www.nuffieldbioethics.org | @CathJoynson | @Nuffbioethics

John Prideaux

The political correspondent at the Economist.

www.mediadirectory.economist.com/people/john-prideaux/  |   https://www.economist.com/  | @JohnPrideaux | @TheEconomist

Ilina Singh

Professor of Neuroscience & Society at the University of Oxford and co-director at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Ethics and the Humanities. Principal Investigator on The UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator, a collaborative project that brought UK ethics research expertise to bear on the multiple, ongoing ethical challenges present by Covid-19.

https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/team/ilina-singh  | @OxPsychiatry

James Wilson

Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Health Humanities Centre at UCL and co-investigator on the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.

www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/people/permanent-academic-staff/james-wilson  |  @jamesgswilson | @ucl

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Co-producer: Kate Jopling @katejopling

Cover art by Patrick Blower  www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com 

This episode of Going Viral on trust in the pandemic, has been produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. The Ethics Accelerator was funded by the UKRI Covid-19 research and innovation fund. 

https://ukpandemicethics.org/   |   @PandemicEthics_

Transcript available here:

Going-Viral-What-Would-an-Ethical-Pandemic-Look-Like-Transcript.pdf 

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!

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, reappraise this approach. With Ceinwen Giles and Matt Fowler. Produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

Anjana Ahuja 

Contributing writer on science for the Financial Times and co-author of the bestselling ‘Spike: The Virus Vs The People’ - the inside story of the Covid-19 pandemic with Sir Jeremy Farrar.

https://www.ft.com/anjana-ahuja  /  @anjahuja

Ceinwen Giles

Co-CEO of Shine Cancer Support, member of the General Advisory Council of The King's Fund and Chair of the Patient and Public Voices Forum for the NHS England Cancer Programme.

www.shinecancersupport.org / @ceineken

Professor Martin McKee

Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Martin is Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and he’s published many scientific papers and books on health and health policy, with a particular focus on countries undergoing political and social transition.

www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mckee.martin / @martinmckee

Matt Fowler

Co-Founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.

www.jrct.org.uk/covid-19-bereaved-families  / @CovidJusticeUK

Professor Dominic Wilkinson

Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of Medical Ethics at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Dominic is also a Consultant Neonatologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College. He is one the editors of a forthcoming book with Oxford University Press on pandemic ethics.

www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/about-jesus-college/our-community/people/professor-dominic-wilkinson/ / @NeonatalEthics

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Co-producer: Kate Jopling  @katejopling

Cover art by Patrick Blower. www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com 

This episode of Going Viral on trust in the pandemic, has been produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. The Ethics Accelerator was funded by the UKRI Covid-19 research and innovation fund. 

https://ukpandemicethics.org/   /  @PandemicEthics_

Transcript available here:

Going-Viral-How-Many-Deaths-Are-Too-Many-Transcript.pdf

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 inequalities as well as his decades-long research into this field.  This interview is featured in our companion episode: ‘All In It Together: Were Unequal Outcomes Inevitable during Covid-19?’

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association.

https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/  @MichaelMarmot

@marmotihe

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Co-producer: Kate Jopling  @katejopling

Cover art by Patrick Blower. www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

Blog: markhonigsbaum.substack.com 

This episode of Going Viral on trust in the pandemic, has been produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator. A partnership between the Universities of Oxford, Bristol and Edinburgh, University College London, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (the Principal Investigator was Professor Ilina Singh, University of Oxford). The Ethics Accelerator was funded by the UKRI Covid-19 research and innovation fund. 

https://ukpandemicethics.org/   /  @PandemicEthics_

Transcript available here:

Going-Viral-Bonus-Interview-with-Professor-Sir-Michael-Marmot-Transcript.pdf

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!

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 coalition of charities working on health issues and which was extremely active highlighting issues of inequality during the pandemic.

www.nationalvoices.org.uk  / @CharlotteAugst

Dr. Halima Begum

Chief Executive of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality think tank.

https://www.runnymedetrust.org  / @Halima_Begum

Pastor Mick Fleming

Founder of Church on the Street Ministries, Burnley.

@PastorFleming

Dr. Beth Kamunge-Kpodo

Beth is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading. She has a longstanding interest in exploring and addressing various forms of inequality.

www.reading.ac.uk/law/our-staff/beth-kamunge-kpodo

Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association. Professor Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for over 50 years.

@MichaelMarmot

https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Co-producer: Kate Jopling  @katejopling

Cover art by Patrick Blower. www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

This episode of Going Viral on trust in the pandemic, has been produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.

It is a partnership between the Universities of Oxford, Bristol and Edinburgh, University College London, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (the Principal Investigator was Professor Ilina Singh, University of Oxford). The Ethics Accelerator was funded by the UKRI Covid-19 research and innovation fund. 

https://ukpandemicethics.org/

@PandemicEthics_

Transcript available here:

Going-Viral-Were-Unequal-Outcomes-Inevitable-during-Covid-19-Transcript.pdf

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!

The coronavirus pandemic raised significant questions about public trust: trust in science, trust in politicians and trust in the public health messaging. Today Mark and his guests Anjana Ahuja; Sarah Cunningham-Burley; Charles Kwaku-Odoi and Christina Pagel discuss trust during the Covid-19 pandemic for this Going Viral special, produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator.

Presented by Mark Honigsbaum @honigsbaum

With:

Anjana Ahuja

Anjana Ahuja is a contributing writer on science for the Financial Times, offering weekly opinion on significant developments in global science, health and technology.  Last year she co-authored the bestselling ‘Spike: The Virus Vs The People’ - the inside story of the Covid-19 pandemic with Sir Jeremy Farrar. Spike was shortlisted for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize.

https://www.ft.com/anjana-ahuja  /  @anjahuja

Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley

Sarah is Professor of Medical and Family Sociology and Dean of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Sarah led on work around engaging the public as part of the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator which finished its work in August 2022. She brought together members of the public to consider ethical issues arising during the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/sarah-cunningham-burley / @Sarah_C_Burley 

Rev Charles Kwaku-Odoi

Charles is Chief Officer of the Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN) and a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of the county of Greater Manchester. Charles works to bring equity and fairness across a range of important health and wellbeing issues for people of the Caribbean and African Diaspora. He sits on a wide range of local and national governance boards including Macc (Manchester Community Central), Faith Network for Manchester, SAGE Ethnicity Subgroup, Greater Manchester Voluntary Community & Social Enterprise (VCSE) Leadership Group, Coalition of Race Equality (CORE) Organisations.

www.cahn.org.uk  /  @charleskod

Professor Christina Pagel

Christina Pagel is a Mathematician and Professor of operational research at University College London within UCL's Clinical Operational Research Unit, which applies operational research, data analysis and mathematical modelling to topics in healthcare.

https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=ACPAG88 / @chrischirp

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald @Melissafitzg

Co-producer: Kate Jopling  @katejopling

Cover art by Patrick Blower. www.blowercartoons.com

Follow us on Twitter: @GoingViral_pod    

Follow us on Instagram: goingviral_thepodcast 

This episode of Going Viral on trust during the pandemic, has been produced in collaboration with the UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator, which was funded by the UKRI Covid-19 research and innovation fund.

https://ukpandemicethics.org/

@PandemicEthics_

Transcript available here:

Going-Viral-Who-Do-We-Trust-in-a-Pandemic-Transcript-1.pdf 

If you enjoy our podcast - please leave us a rating or review.  Thank you!