WAY Trustee: My family’s story is the human cost behind 'too little, too late'

November 2025

WAY Trustee Emma Charlesworth’s experience lays bare the devastating human impact behind the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s verdict that government action came ‘too little, too late’. Her story is a stark reminder that every statistic represents a family’s life changed forever. Here are Emma’s words…

“Today a report on the core decision-making and political governance from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry was published. It has found that the response by all four UK governments to COVID pandemic was a case of 'too little, too late'.

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I have no doubt that there will be much in the media over the next few days about what lessons could be learned, the actions of those in the government and the lives that could have been saved had there been a different response. Numbers and statistics will be shared. 

But behind every statistic is a life. A family. A story. Charlie was 45 when he died of COVID-19 on 19 April 2020. Overnight, I became a widow at 39 and our daughter became fatherless at just 10 years old. We are one of the families still living with the permanent aftermath of those early decisions.

Sadly, my family’s story is the human cost behind 'too little, too late'. It is an all too common an occurrence as a result of decisions made by those who should have been doing everything possible to protect the public in a time of peril. My family, like thousands of others, paid the consequences of those decisions dearly.”