Academic Co-Director gives evidence in final module of the Covid-19 Inquiry

Health Equity North’s world-leading expert on health inequalities will present further evidence to the independent public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic today. 

Newcastle University’s Professor Clare Bambra, who is a Health Equity North  Academic Co-Director, will give evidence in her capacity as a leading expert in health inequalities, alongside Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who is also an internationally recognised expert in the field. 

Professor Bambra will present evidence on Wednesday at 11.30am to the government-commissioned inquiry which, in the tenth and final module, will examine the impact of Covid-19 on people across the United Kingdom with a particular focus on key workers, the most vulnerable, the bereaved and mental health and wellbeing. 

Her evidence will draw on her extensive research, including Health Equity North supported analysis, and will focus on how Covid-19 affected different communities across the UK. 

Professor Bambra said: “Covid-19 exposed deep and long-standing health inequalities across the UK, and those inequalities shaped people’s experiences of the pandemic in profound ways. 

“As we present our evidence, we aim to highlight not only the scale of these disparities, but also their causes and consequences for communities, particularly within areas of socio-economic deprivation, including in the North of England.” 

You can follow the presentation of evidence on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel which can be found on the UK Covid 19 Inquiry website. 

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was set up in 2023 to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future. 

Professor Bambra previously presented evidence in the first module of the inquiry in 2023, which looked at the role of the pandemic preparedness and resilience. The report from Professors Clare Bambra and Sir Michael Marmot is available here. 

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health in the North of England and the knock-on effects to productivity has been a key area of focus for the Northern Health Science Alliance and Health Equity North.  

Professor Bambra was lead author on our ‘COVID-19 and the Northern Powerhouse’ report, the follow up report ‘A Year of COVID-19 in the North’ and the 2023 publication ‘The Parallel Pandemic: COVID-19 and Mental Health’. 

Read all our publications here: https://www.healthequitynorth.co.uk/reports