Why Were Women 'Invisible' During Covid?

Newscast

It’s been another extraordinary day of testimony at the Covid Inquiry. Wednesday’s session began with Helen MacNamara, a top official at Downing Street during the height of the pandemic. She described a “macho” culture at No 10 in which women “became invisible overnight”.

She also said she’d struggle to pick “a single day” in which Covid restrictions were followed and recalled meetings at which people were “laughing at the Italians” in the early days of the crisis.

Adam’s joined once again by the BBC’s health reporter Jim Reed and Dr Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government to unpack today’s evidence.

And, as the UK AI Summit gets underway, we speak to the BBC’s technology editor Zoe Kleinman after her interview with Rishi Sunak on the day the UK unveiled a global agreement on how to manage the riskiest forms of AI.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere

Today's Newscast was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by George Dabby with Gemma Roper and Sam McLaren. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The senior news editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Sam Bonham.

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes and get the latest updates.

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada