In the scramble to respond to a global pandemic, I watched in awe as the vast majority of ordinary Britons came together with quiet decency, courage and altruism. Not quite everyone though - as today’s damning report from the UK Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, lays bare. Boris Johnson’s infamous ‘VIP’ lane for PPE procurement wasted an eye-watering £10bn of public money by favouring suppliers with connections to government, despite their abject lack of experience. Cronies like Michelle Mone squandered hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on useless, unfit-for-purpose PPE, all while lining their corrupt, bottomless coffers. “The waste of public money was vast and could have been avoided, says Hallet. "Of approximately £14.9bn spent on PPE, nearly two thirds – almost £10bn – was wasted.” Meanwhile, NHS doctors, nurses and care sector staff were forced to work with pitifully adequate PPE and lack of essential healthcare equipment such as ventilators. We couldn’t protect ourselves - or those in our care - from infection. I will never forget those plastic pinnies so thin they tore apart in your hands, and the paper masks so flimsy the ear loops fell off as you unfolded them. Hancock and Johnson will forever crow that they were heroes. But frontline staff in hospitals like mine will never forget the fear, the pressure, the staggering loss of life and our colleagues - who died of the deadly disease they caught while trying so valiantly to save others.