How will the three year inquiry into the pandemic unfold? Adam talks to More or Less presenter Tim Harford about how statistics influenced government decision making on the lockdown and vaccines. BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym was in the room for the first day of public hearings and tells us how families reacted at the beginning of the long-awaited proceedings. Adam also talks to Emma Norris, the Institute for Government’s expert on public inquiries to untangle what the inquiry hopes to achieve and what she took away from day one. Today’s episode was made by Ben Carter with Madeleine Drury, Alex Collins and Cordelia Hemming. The technical producer was Gareth Jones. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.