Covid: Fifth Anniversary

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I declare my interest in this debate as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on vulnerable groups to pandemics.

“Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” It is almost surreal, five years on, to say those words aloud today. Most of us had never heard of social distancing or imagined a Britain under lockdown. Overnight, vibrant communities turned still. Our high streets, once filled with life and laughter, became eerily silent, like scenes from a Hollywood sci-fi. But this was not fiction; it was our shared reality. The consequences were real and the sacrifices immeasurable. Today, as we reflect on that time, we carry a duty to not just remember but learn the lessons for the future.

For many of us, the covid pandemic feels like a closed chapter. The lockdowns have ended, the pubs are open, the masks are off and life has almost returned to normal, but for over 1 million people across the UK, normal never really returned. Those are people who are immunocompromised. They cannot mount an effective response to mRNA—messenger ribonucleic acid—vaccines. The very tool that pulled so many of us out of lockdown—the vaccine—simply does not work for them. That means today, in 2025, they are still living with the same risk that the elderly and clinically vulnerable faced in those terrifying months in 2020. They are still shielding, still isolated and still left behind, and the toll on those people and their families is appalling.

A recent report by the campaign group Forgotten Lives UK found that 93% of family members of immunocompromised patients are still shielding to protect their loved ones. Three quarters of those families are in the clinical range for anxiety and depression. Half of all patients are missing medical appointments, and a third are facing financial hardship. I know the Secretary of State has met with immunocompromised patients and representatives from the Forgotten Lives UK group. I welcome that engagement and echo its call for better support. However, I must express my disappointment. As chair of the all-party group on vulnerable groups to pandemics, I wrote to the previous Minister and the current Minister, asking them to meet me and those immunocompromised patients. To date, I have not received a response, so I would be grateful if the Minister would follow up on that matter directly.

In conclusion—I am flipping through my well prepared speech, Madam Deputy Speaker—we need a whole-Government approach to addressing this issue, and tangible assistance to help people reintegrate into work and public life; and we need to educate society about the risks that covid-19 continues to pose to immuno- compromised individuals.

[Several hon. Members rose—]