What will the Covid inquiry tell us about science and politics?

Statistical modelling is more akin to science fiction than to science, it is described as drawing a mathematically precise line from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion.

Fascinating though it may be to future historians and ammunition for present day politicians to attack one another, this 'inquiry' is - like so many others - completely useless as they are designed to find fault with how people acted in difficult situations rather than to discern what went wrong (and what was successful) with the intent of improving processes and decision-making in the future by making it inherently harder to make the same mistakes again. To be of any value the approach of 'Fix problems, not blame' is essential.

In response to Tracey Brown's comments: clearly, the experts could and should have probed whether they were asked the 'right questions'. Simply providing technical responses without critically assessing the merits of the research question is, in my opinion, a hallmark of poor science.